Magic guard Markelle Fultz, the No. 1 overall pick of the 2017 draft, could make his 2022/23 season debut on Sunday against the Sixers, per Khobi Price of The Orlando Sentinel (subscription required).
The 24-year-old has missed the first 19 games of the season after fracturing his left big toe in late September, right before training camp opened. However, he was able to practice on Wednesday and he’s been upgraded from out to questionable for Sunday’s game, as Price relays.
A couple weeks ago, Price reported that Fultz hoped to return in the next three-to-four weeks, so a Sunday return would be a little ahead of schedule for that timeline. Still, he’s only listed as questionable, not probable or available, so there’s no guarantee that he’ll actually play, though it’s certainly encouraging that his return appears imminent.
Injuries have been a major factor in Fultz’s career, limiting him to just 131 games over five-plus seasons, including 18 in ’21/22 after recovering from a torn ACL. He averaged 10.8 points, 2.7 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 1.1 steals in 20.0 minutes last season.
Fultz will earn a guaranteed $16.5MM this season, but his $17MM salary for ’23/24 is only partially guaranteed at $2MM, so how he performs upon his return will likely have a significant impact on whether he’s in Orlando’s future plans. The Magic have dealt with a number of injuries to key rotation players this season and are currently 5-14, the third-worst record in the NBA.
Still crazy this guy was such a bustz Still young and hopefully has improved some parts of his game in rehab but man.
Hope Fultz end up being somewhat decent. Does anyone think Jonathan Isaac will ever play again?
Hell probably end up a key endorsor of Twitter…
Twitter where crazy is encouraged…
Get too crazy in the NBA and you don’t last…
This kid is basically on his 4th shot now…
He keeps working for it but suffers from such bad luck… Hopefully he can turn himself into a solid rotation player…
Whatever happened in Philly screwed him right up… Something is just culturally wrong there… Fultz and Simmons are just the symptoms of a much larger problem there…
He doesn’t actually want to play. He likes the lifestyle and money. That’s all. In Philly you could just see it in his demeanor within the ball super sloppy no real drive or aggressive play.