Philadelphia 76ers Ben Simmons Markelle Fultz 1st postseason

Markelle Fultz mulligan

Rookie guard Markelle Fultz is one of the gutsiest, talented NBA players today. And as expected, he “re-debuted” in time to make the Philadelphia 76ers that much more interesting in the NBA Playoffs. Let’s face it, the storyline for Markelle Fultz’s first NBA season has enough twists, turns, and cul-de-sacs to make it worthy of a Agatha Christie novel. An incredible talent arrived in the hands of the team most equipped to correctly develop incredible talent.

But not all players land in the NBA basketball court with their engines revved. On the biggest basketball stage of the world, Markelle Fultz’s development was not quite ready for prime time. Why? Muscular imbalance was the official story.  But a rather prophetic article came out from his college performance predicting the very challenges he experienced in the NBA.  A naturally versatile athlete, Fultz’s NCAA experience was limited due to knee injuries that benched him for the final third of the season.

Coaching starved Fultz

At Washington, the team’s scheme was basically a blank canvas for Markelle Fultz to paint a play upon each game. As such, he became incredibly knowledgeable in working the Washington Huskies offense with the ball, and without the ball. He flexed between point guard and shooting guard, sometimes multiple times on the same play. But through it all, the talent was more artistic than scheme disciplined.

When Markelle Fultz arrived to Philadelpia, his development accelerated. No more “do what you feel”, the team began converting all that talent into focused play. However you want to interpret that, the trajectory hit a snag. Fultz found himself out of the rotation to repair and overcome the snag.  While that was confusing in real time, it is good news for the Philadelphia 76ers now.