The Philadelphia 76ers have yet another positive emerging this offseason with what appears to be Markelle Fultz working with a professional shot technician.
The offseason is the time for development for the younger players in the NBA. It should be the goal for every young player to improve from the previous season. That includes the young players on the Philadelphia 76ers roster. While the Sixers made it to the second round of playoffs after not getting to the postseason since 2012, this young core still can drastically improve. Probably one of, if not the most important player that needs dramatic improvement to begin next season is Markelle Fultz.
Fultz was hampered for the majority of his rookie season with shoulder issues. As a result, the point guard’s jump shot looked extremely broken.
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His shooting numbers looked just as bad as the jump shot itself. He only shot 40.5 percent on field goal attempts and didn’t make his only 3-point attempt of the season. To say that Fultz needs to put in serious work on his jump shot is an understatement.
Both the Sixers and Fultz need his jump shot repaired next season so both parties can continue improve. Enter in Drew Hanlen, who is the CEO/founder of Pure Sweat Sports. Hanlen has the reputation of dramatically improving the jump shots of players that come to him. Hanlen recently made the news for working with draft prospect Mohamed Bamba. Some of Hanlen’s other clients include Bradley Beal of the Washington Wizards and Sixers center Joel Embiid.
There’s a picture on Instagram in which Fultz and Hanlen are tagged in.
https://instagram.com/p/Bj3cZfqlz7o/
In the picture it appears that Hanlen is giving Fultz advice.
This is great for the Sixers and Fultz. Hopefully the Hanlen shooting touch will rub off on Fultz so that he may return to the knock down shooter he was in college. In college, Fultz shot 47.6 percent on field goal attempts and 41.3 percent on shots from behind the arc.
If Hanlen can bring Fultz’s shooting ability from college, it would open up a new dimension for the Sixers on both sides of the ball. It would allow both Fultz and Ben Simmons to play on offense together. Fultz can spot up behind the line or initiate the offense and hit Simmons on a back door cut. Defensively, Fultz can defend opposing point guards while Simmons can guard a wing or big. This would allow the Sixers to play their two best playmakers at the same time.
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For the sake of the Philadelphia 76ers and Markelle Fultz, hopefully Hanlen works his magic and gets Fultz back to where he was shooting wise during his college days. If Fultz regains his form the Sixers may have the makings of a big three with Embiid, Simmons and Fultz. Fultz’s development is one of the important aspects of the Sixers offseason.