At the direction of agent and attorney Raymond Brothers, Sixers point guard Markelle Fultz is scheduled to visit a shoulder specialist in New York within the next week, per David Aldridge and Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter links). Brothers tells Aldridge that Fultz won’t participate in practices or games until after the specialist has had the opportunity to evaluate him.
The No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 draft, Fultz missed nearly all of his rookie season last year, in large part due to ongoing shoulder issues. While the young guard has appeared healthy this season, he has continued to struggle with his shot, inadvertently creating viral highlights due to unusual hitches in his shooting form — even on free throws.
It’s not clear whether Fultz’s shooting problems are primarily physical or mental, but either way, he has struggled to make an impact early in his NBA career, averaging just 7.7 PPG, 3.4 APG, and 3.4 RPG with a .414/.267/.534 shooting line in 33 games (20.6 MPG).
Although he was a starter for Philadelphia for the first 15 games of the team’s 2018/19 campaign, Fultz has moved to the bench since the Sixers acquired Jimmy Butler. The 20-year-old played a season-low seven minutes in Monday’s win over the Suns, ceding playing time to T.J. McConnell.
As Tim Bontemps of ESPN.com relays, head coach Brett Brown declined to commit after the game to Fultz or McConnell as his backup point guard going forward. However, based on Aldridge’s report, it sounds like McConnell will take over that role, at least for the time being.
Good TJ’s better anyway at this point.
The Sixers have been covering up his injury since it happened. They separated Drew Hanlan from Fultz after he tweeted Fultz was still hurt. The fact that he got lawyers involved says a lot. If it comes out that he has nerve damage under his scapula, I wonder what will happen and how will they try to spin the story
What if it’s because Fultz just stinks?
Making that decision 40 games into his career with an injury? Okay
Do you watch basketball?
Every night. Being as though I’m from Philly I tend to watch the Sixers as well.
You should watch harder.
He’s just trying to stick around long enough to be a little better than Bennet. Don’t want to have the tag if worst ever 1st overall pick.
He’s already had a triple double. Idk if Bennett even had 10 assists total in his whole career. Plus Fultz is a bust because of injury. So he falls in the Greg Oden bust category not the Bennett/Olowkandi bust category
He plays hard, and hustles.
I’m gonna wait for the full story before making any kind of judgement.
He’s a good kid too.
Where’s the story suggesting it was a motorbike accident? It’s definitely a pain/confidence thing
I can’t drink the Koolaid anymore, someone has peed in the punch bowl.
He definitely plays harder than he did in college. That was one of the reasons some people were down on him, including myself. I think he has shown growth, but being on that team puts him under a much bigger microscope b/c they were hoping to contend with him. Now that he isnt out of position as much, I was hoping to see how he did in this role, but if he is injured again that obviously is more important to figure out
What makes you think he’s such a good kid? He’s a whiny little entitled fake who has been hiding behind their veil of a 1st round pick. Time to move on.
Bayless was more useful at this point. Almost should have included Fultz in the trade instead.
Player A 33 GP 15 GS .414 FG% .267 3P% .534 FT% 3.4 TRB 3.4 AST .9 STL .3 BLK 7.7 PTS
Player B 39 GP 11 GS .416 FG% .370 3P% .795 FT% 2.1 TRB 1.4 AST .6 STL .2 BLK 7.9 PTS
A is Fultz B is Bayless where’s the emoji’s on this thing? I need the head exploding one.
Insert Vin Diesel meme from Fast & Furious: “YOU EMBARRASS ME!”
I think Philadelphia is dragging this out to hide the embarassment of the trade with Boston.
With the injury he suffered, I find it hard to believe he does not have a team of shoulder specialists already in place. Very odd.
Think the rookie salary structure needs to be reduced. There’s guys that actually ball and get paid jack, then you have Fultz, Bennett, and a ton of other busts that are just Sam Bradford-ing it stealing that paycheck as long as they can.
So because a rookie is struggling (surprise) all rookies should make less money? Another guy obsessed with giving money back to billionaires.
Fultz makes like 8.3M and Mitchell makes 3.1M.
Take some of the MLB arbitration structure – determine value based on performance.
MLB is structured to suppress youth salaries just like all the other leagues. People clamor on and on anytime a player performs poorly on a rich contract, but no one’s ever complaining when someone makes the all-star team on a rookie deal.
I said it before the draft, and I’ll say it again—Philly should have taken Tatum. You had Simmons running point, what purpose does drafting a pg who can’t shoot serve? That single blunder doomed their roster. They might as well trade Embiid and Simmons and start over, because they’re not winning anything with that poorly constructed roster.
1. Everyone predicted everything on the internet
2. Fultz could shoot before they drafted him
3. This team would be good if they didn’t draft anyone that year, so why tear it down because their pick hasn’t worked out?
Banana, you still didn’t answer the question. Why draft Fultz if you’re Philly? They didn’t need a PG, and EVERYBODY knew the weakest part of Fultz’s game was shooting. I’ll go ahead and tell you why Philly wanted him. They wanted him because they thought other teams wanted him, namely Boston. Name recognition is big in Philly. Instead of drafting a wing player who could shoot to compliment Embiid and Simmons, they moved up to grab a player that was completely useless to them. It’s called poor roster construction, and it’s something all to common with teams in Philly. Screw due diligence, let’s “get that guy Boston/NY/LA wants”.
So when this pick is where they should tear it down? Not with Noel or Okafor but when they are actually winning games is when they should go back to nba pergatory… come on dude get real for a second
How funny, before the draft didn’t hear even once mentioned that JT should be the #1 pick, heard of Fultz, Ball even Jackson, so whatever happens doesn’t change the fact that Philly chose the consensus #1, with that people can’t blame you, but as the draft is a lottery some you win some you lose, surely you don’t wanna get every pick right, where is the fan in that?
Tatum was the #1 guy going into that season though. Also, everyone said he was probably the most polished, but there were some questions about his defense and ability to hit the 3. Personally, I thought he could shoot, and would be better than people thought defensively, but he showed he has even more than that on both ends. I liked Jackson and Fox, and thought Ball would fall a little. I also liked Donovan Mitchell, but I didnt think he could go higher than the Knicks at 8, and thought he would go 10th…I didnt feel like Fultz jumped off the page in college, as I mentioned I didnt feel like he played hard. He did make a lot look easier than it was though, so that was part of it. He seemed like he would be good at drawing fouls, attacking the rim, but his jumpshot was better in college than I thought it would be. That made me think it would be fine, before he got hurt. I also thought he had room to improve on defense, but he wasnt terrible on that end. I think he has definitely improved in that area. I didnt think he was #1, but I did think he was definitely top 5, and probably a top 3 guy, as deep as that early part of the draft was. Honestly, Jonathan Issac was probably my favorite coming out of the draft that year for how he stood out defensively.
So where’s the posters who thought TJ should go away now? The playoffs last year highlighted his importance, starting or not.
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Fultz probably does have a nerve thing but that doesn’t mean it can be ‘fixed’. CNS elements are hard to fix or even understand. Doctors cannot begin to mend severed spinal cords, despite that the body by itself can elsewhere regrow linear nerve bundles at a rate of 1 inch per month.
Anyway if he gets phased out, he should still be checked on.
So much for “the process”. They got two players, and are just another mediocre “playoff team” in the eastern conference. And I hate to break the news, but Butler ain’t staying. Not that he matters much anyway.