Markelle Fultz, the Sixers’ top overall pick from the 2017 NBA Draft, has appeared in all four games, averaging 19 minutes per game. He’s struggled mightily from the field, shooting 33 percent overall, and his new and certainly not improved free throw form has baffled those around the league, as he shoots 50 percent from the stripe.
A rookie struggling early in his career isn’t new, but the circumstances around Fultz’s struggles, in particular his shooting, are extremely weird. Fultz has blamed a shoulder injury for his new free throw form, claiming he’s just trying to get through this current period of pain until he’s back to 100 percent and can return to his old stroke.
That seems weird and like something that an organization probably shouldn’t allow him to do, right? Brett Brown has said he’s concerned about the new shooting motion, and it’s clear something is very off, considering he hasn’t attempted a shot from beyond 15 feet all season. There have been some that have postulated that Fultz is dealing with the yips, not a shoulder injury, and that is the reason the Sixers are continuing to put him on the floor despite this sudden change in mindset and physical form from their top pick.
However, Fultz and his agent are insisting it’s an injury, with his agent releasing a strong statement about how severe Fultz’s shoulder injury is to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who reports the rookie had fluid drained from his shoulder prior to the season.
“Markelle had a shoulder injury and fluid drained out of the back of his shoulder,” agent Raymond Brothers told ESPN. “He literally cannot raise up his arms to shoot the basketball. He decided to try and fight through the pain to help the team. He has a great attitude. We are committed to finding a solution to get Markelle back to 100 percent. …
“From a basketball perspective, it’s been encouraging to see that Markelle can get any shot he wants during the games, but he has been unable to shoot the ball.”
Alright, so there’s an awful lot to digest here. There’s clearly something of a contentious relationship brewing between Fultz and his camp and the Sixers, because your agent doesn’t just go on record talking about this to a reporter if you and the team are on the same page. Fultz even went so far as to retweet the Wojnarowski story with his agent talking about the injury, which seems like a clear cry for someone to listen to him about this injury.
https://twitter.com/samdcooper/status/922920478968233984
Beyond that, if this is true, and there’s no reason to believe it’s not, then why on earth is Fultz playing at all. Woj reports Fultz will see a specialist “soon,” but there’s nothing decided about him missing any games. As for his agent’s statement on what he’s done on the court to this point, it’s not “encouraging” for him to be able to get open shots if he cannot take them. It’s not helping the team by fighting through the pain if when he’s on the court he’s a glorified decoy on offense where the best case scenario is he drives to the paint where teams will learn they can simply foul him because he shoots free throws like Dwight Howard now.
Nothing about any of this makes sense. The Sixers, for three years, have been the most patient franchise in the league when it comes to injuries. They had Joel Embiid sit out two full seasons to ensure they didn’t rush him back. Ben Simmons sat out all of last season for the same reason. Even in his return, Embiid has remained on a minutes restriction and not allowed to play back-to-backs, to his chagrin.
After doing that with two prized top picks, suddenly the Sixers, with a guy they traded up in the draft to get and traded away a significant future asset to ensure they acquired, are just throwing him out there with a shoulder injury so severe he cannot lift his arms up high enough to shoot without there being significant pain. I get that there’s pressure on this team to compete this season and finally pay off on the process, however, it’s a complete reversal of everything we’ve seen from them (even last year after Hinkie and company were gone).
It’s baffling that the team that became the poster child for thinking long-term would so suddenly put a long-term foundational piece at risk for the short-term. Hopefully Fultz and the Sixers can get on the same page with what’s going on with his shoulder, because if he’s that injured, someone needs to step in and make sure he rests and heals properly before he continues playing.
