New Video Of Markelle Fultz’s Jump Shot Shows Significant Improvement

The 2017-18 NBA season featured so many ridiculous storylines that, somehow, the No. 1 overall pick missing almost the entire season with a mysterious shoulder injury and completely changing his shooting form wasn’t the most talked about thing in the league.

Markelle Fultz played four games to start the season, basically refusing to shoot the ball, and then got shut down with a shoulder injury that no one could seemingly figure out. From there, he went through a bizarre stretch where his timetable kept getting pushed back, he briefly was seen shooting left-handed, and every update seemed to only add more questions than provide answers. However, Fultz made his eventual return to the Sixers late in the season to mixed results, and then began his summer with a clean bill of health and with plenty to work on.

We’ve heard plenty about Fultz’s workouts this summer from his trainer Drew Hanlen and, most recently, coach Brett Brown who talked about Fultz taking 150,000 shots this offseason to rebuild his shooting stroke. While we’ve gotten teases of images of him shooting, it wasn’t until early Thursday morning that the first real video of his new shooting form came out, courtesy of The Players’ Tribune and a new video where he discusses his turbulent rookie year and this offseason with fellow Washington Husky Isaiah Thomas.

As you can see from the video, the jumper looks smooth, even when factoring in the way highlights of summer workouts are edited to make everyone the best shooter in the world. Even taking that into account, you can see significant improvement from where he was last year and even improvement on his college shooting form that made him relatively inconsistent from long range. This new form looks smoother with a bit quicker of a release, as you can see in this side-by-side comparison of this most recent video and footage from a pre-draft workout last year.

The Sixers have high hopes for Fultz this season, adding him into the mix with Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid. One thing Philadelphia certainly can use from Fultz is improved three-point shooting, because when he shares the floor with the other two young stars, the paint will get a bit congested. It’s always important to understand that summer workout videos don’t always translate perfectly to what we’ll see on the NBA floor, but getting that many reps in to rebuild muscle memory for what appears to be an improved jump shot is worthy of optimism from Sixers fans and those that just want to see Fultz succeed in general.