The Potential of Markelle Fultz

Why Markelle Fultz’ abilities make the clear top pick in the 2017 NBA draft and the perfect point guard for the Philadelphia 76ers.

For the second year in a row a player that failed to lead his team to the NCAA Tournament is expected to be the top pick in the NBA draft. DraftExpress.com, CBSS ports.com, and NBAD raft.net all expect Washington University point guard Markelle Fultz to be the first name called by NBA commissioner Adam Silver on draft day, despite being the best player on a team with 9 wins and 22 losses. Fultz was part of a Washington team that was worse than 2016’s top draft pick Ben Simmons‘ LSU team that finished the 2015-16 season with 19 wins and 14 losses.

"“’When I committed I was thinking they were going to stay, but they had great seasons and deserve to be where they’re at right now,’ Fultz said. ‘I’m not mad at them. But I’m not going to lie, sometimes I do think how crazy it would have been if they had stayed.‘I think we would be No. 1 in the country. We would have gone to the (NCAA) tournament and won the tournament. I know it.’”"

Philadelphia 76ers /

Philadelphia 76ers

The above quote is from Percy Allen’s “Markelle Fultz lived up to the hype for UW. So why did Huskies fail to deliver?” It’s Fultz explaining how much better his Washington team would’ve been this season if Dejounte Murray and Marquese Chriss were still on the team. Murray and Chriss were freshmen during the 2015-16 season and were two of that team’s top three scorers. Fultz expected both players to return to Washington for their sophomore seasons. Fultz was admittedly surprised when both players decided to entered the NBA draft after the season leaving him with a much worse Washington team than the one he thought he was committing to.

While the Washington team Fultz joined wasn’t the one he thought he was joining, he didn’t join the team to play with other talented players. Fultz didn’t become a top college prospect until the later stages of his high school career when he grew from 5’9″ to 6’4″. The first schools to show serious interest in him were High Point and Washington. Washington head coach Lorenzo Romar built a great relationship with Fultz and his mother, and that mattered more to Fultz than playing with multiple potential NBA players at Kentucky or Kansas — two colleges that attempted to recruit Fultz.

When it comes to Fultz’ ability as a player, it’s becomes very clear why he is considered the top player. From his great ball handling and shooting to his incredible passing and shocking ability to get blocks as a point guard, watching him play made it clear to me that he was an actually good player and not just the best player on a bad team that was allowed to take every shot.

Fultz averaged 23.2 points per game and a lot of his scoring came from great shooting. His overall field goal percentage was 48 percent and he made 41 percent of his 3-point shots. Fultz excels at making pull-up jumpers or taking mid-range shots and making them despite having a hand in his face. This is both a blessing and a curse, because he’s a player that can be counted on to take and possible make a game winning shot, but he can fall in love with low percentage jump shots instead of driving to the basket for a layup or draw a foul.

That issue becomes clear when you look at how often he draws a foul anytime he shots, which is usually a good sign if a players drives to basket often. Fultz draws a foul on 38 percent of his shot, which is significantly less than top NBA point guards Chris Paul and John Wall during their college careers. Paul drew fouls on 62 percent of his shot during his two years at Wake Forest and Wall drew fouls on 53 percent of his shots during his single season at Kentucky.

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Fultz’s 5.9 assists per game is also less than college Paul’s 6.3 assists per game and college Wall’s 6.5 assists per game, but he clearly has the potential to be a great passer. He will make incredible bounce passes to teammates driving towards the basket and he’s an unselfish player that has no problem giving up the ball to allow his teammates to score. Both Paul and Wall were on teams that were good enough to make the NCAA Tournament and weren’t forced to score as much as Fultz to keep their teams in the game.

Paul (15 points per game) and Wall (16.6 points points per game) didn’t score anywhere near the amount of points Fultz did in college, but that could also go towards the idea that Fultz is just as capable of being a shooting guard as he can be a point guard. From a pass first perspective, likely second overall pick in the 2017 draft Lonzo Ball is a better point guard, but Fultz is likely to be a better player overall and a better player for the Philadelphia 76ers. With Ben Simmons likely handling the ball at least at a third of the time on offense, the Sixers don’t need a ball dominate point guard and Fultz’s ability to make shots anywhere on court would fit perfectly.

Watching Fultz play defense, it’s clear that he often loses focus on this end of the court, but none of his issues are physical and he should be able to improve with practice. Standing at 6-4 and weighing 186 pounds with an 8-6 standing reach, Fultz should be able to guard any NBA point guard or shooting guard. While Fultz’s 1.6 steals per game is significantly less than college Paul’s 2.5 and slightly less than Wall’s 1.8 steals per game, Fultz’s ability to block shots is amazing for a guard. When I first saw Fultz come from behind a player he wasn’t responsible for defending and block what should’ve been an easy layup, I thought it was a great highlight, but a fluke play. After I saw him block another shot the same game I began to wonder, could this point guard really be this good at blocking shots?

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It was the type of thing I only saw during K.J. McDanials’ rookie season or a fully-upgraded-user-created player from NBA 2K. College Paul’s 0.2 blocks per game and college Wall’s 0.5 blocks per game are no were close to Fultz’s 1.2 blocks per game. The top frontcourt player in the 2017 draft. according to DraftExpress, Lauri Markkanen, averages 0.5 blocks per game. That means Fultz is a better blocker than a player that is seven feet tall.

Averaging 23.2 points, 5.9 assists, 5.7 rebounds, 1.6 steals, 1.2 blocks, and 3.2 turnovers per game, Fultz has the ability to become a top ten player in the NBA and would be the perfect point guard for the Sixers.