Markelle Fultz is making progress, but Summer League is doubtful

The Philadelphia 76ers’ most recent No. 1 pick probably won’t suit up for Summer League action.

As the summer shifts from the draft to free agency, Markelle Fultz remains one of the biggest storylines surrounding the Philadelphia 76ers. Once the consensus top prospect in his class, Fultz only played 14 games last season after dealing with shoulder issues. He forgot how to shoot in the process.

While Fultz did return for a solid 10-game stretch to end the season, his jumper only showed marginal improvement. He drilled a few pull-up jumpers, but they were mostly short-range shots. He still had a noticeable hitch when releasing from further away.

Now Fultz’s summer has been dedicated to improving his shot, working with renowned trainer Drew Hanlen to reset his form and get back to where he was coming out of college. And Hanlen, for essentially the first time, dished on what was holding Fultz back.

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Speaking with the Talking Schmidt Podcast, he straight-up called it the yips, which is something no team staffer or source was comfortable saying. There was even a point during the season where Fultz was seemingly upset after ESPN’s Mark Jones misquoted Brett Brown, calling the issue psychosomatic.

While the delivery was a bit surprising, the actual characterization of Fultz’s shooting woes is not. There’s definitely reason to believe that Fultz had legitimate shoulder problems, but to some extent, there always felt like a mental barrier — one he needed to work through this summer.

According to Hanlen, Fultz has been well ahead of schedule with his program.

"“We’ve been working hard every day, working on rewiring his body and getting a kind of smooth stroke back into his shot. We’re way ahead of pace where I thought we were going to be, I thought it was going to take me at least six weeks before we had kind of a serviceable jump shot, and we’re already starting to shoot with a jump in week two.” — Talking Schmidt Podcast"

This is obviously a promising development. Fultz’s talent has never been the concern, as evidenced by his performance last season. Even without a jumper, he was able to get into the lane and rack up high assist totals consistently. He even put together a triple-double in the last game of the season.

If Fultz is able to get some semblance of a workable jumper, he instantly becomes one of the Sixers’ most important pieces. He’s another shot-creator who can get dribble penetration and put pressure on defenders in isolation, something the Sixers sorely lacked in the postseason.

He was also a dynamic pick-and-roll threat in college, blending top-notch vision with the ability to weave his way to the rim or hit pull-ups at all three levels. We all remember the Hesi Pull-up Jimbo.

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Fultz is essentially the player archetype that the Sixers needed most last season. They had plenty of ball movement, pace and shooting — their only issue was generating offense when the ball slowed down. Robert Covington, J.J. Redick and Marco Belinelli were too one-dimensional in that regard.

With all of that said, Fultz’s shot progression figures to be a slow process. Hanlen is reworking his form from the absolute basics, which means Fultz won’t — or at least, shouldn’t — be shooting in actual games anytime soon.

That means Summer League is off the table. Brett Brown hasn’t officially ruled Fultz out of the Vegas tournament, but he had this to say during the team’s post-draft press conference:

"“His development of his shot is looking great. The progress of his shot is looking great. His body, we all see him like with his shoulders and his arms and his wingspan…He’s not doing much playing right now, the effort has been his shot…it’s back to foundational-type stuff. And to like expedite that worries me a little bit as it relates to Summer League. It does. He’s in a good place.There’s a timeline on that, where you’re going to have to start doing some things skill wise, handle and playing and all that, but I think when you look at what’s most important, what thing needs the most work, it’s [the shot]. And I don’t really want to pivot out of that if we think it’s going to hurt a very like, elementary way we’re going about reclaiming his shot.” — Brett Brown, via PhillyVoice"

In the end, holding Fultz out of Summer League action is probably for the best. I would imagine that his mechanics are in a fragile state right now, and warping those under in-game pressure isn’t ideal. That’s especially true when the games have no bearing on regular season success.

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Allowing Fultz to finish his program with Hanlen, without the stress of Summer League, is the best course of action. Don’t expect to see the Washington product on the floor in the coming weeks.