A healthy Markelle Fultz means the Philadelphia 76ers finally have the versatile backcourt scorer they’ve needed. He is the key to beating the Celtics.
Since the beginning of the Process, the Philadelphia 76ers have lacked a guard who can take over a game and score from anywhere. Rookie of the Year Michael Carter-Williams was certainly not that player, and the team’s front office magnified that need for the four straight years when they drafted non-shooters with their best picks.
Markelle Fultz was supposed to step in and fill that gap last season, but the Sixers can’t have nice things, so he only played in 14 games in his rookie year as a result of hurting his shoulder and losing his jump shot. But after a year of work with Drew Hanlen, one of the game’s best trainers, the former Washington star is ready to be the answer to many of the Sixers’ problems.
The Boston Celtics will be the Sixers’ biggest obstacle this season, and they will have Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward available this time around, barring any freak injuries. Boston stymied Philly throughout their Eastern Conference semifinal series, which showed the huge difference in quality between Brown and Brad Stevens and the difference in the two teams’ depth.
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Not only will Fultz be the do-it-all scorer all good teams need in their backcourt, but he will also play a huge part in his team’s quest to take down their rivals in the playoffs.
Boston laid off Ben Simmons in last year’s Playoffs when he brought the ball up which caused problems for his and Joel Embiid‘s interior scoring. Robert Covington and J.J. Redick provided good kick-out options on the dribble drive, but neither can create their own shot when the team needs them to, and the Celtics adjusted their defense to neutralize them.
Coach Brown recently talked about how the team’s last two first-overall draft selections had improved their shooting over the summer, and he said that Fultz put up over 150,000 shots with Drew Hanlen since the season ended. If at least one of those two franchise cornerstones can reliably hit threes this season, the Celtics will have to prepare for a new-look Sixers team.
The fifth-year Sixers head coach went on to say Fultz’s jumper will not define him as a player. That’s a good thing for a team planning to beat the Boston Celtics with Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward healthy.
A healthy Kelle means Brown can bring in a capable isolation scorer without sacrificing any long-range shooting. The combo guard made his name as a dominant on-ball scorer, but the team traded up to draft him because he can function as both a catch-and-shoot guy and as an isolation player.
Including Fultz in the starting lineup would give Simmons a secondary ball handler, which he did not have next to him last season. The Celtics blocked Simmons from entering the lane for most of the five-game Eastern Conference semifinal series and the Australian had no one to defer to who could run the point effectively and throw a wrench in Boston’s game plan. As Philly fans found out quickly, neither T.J. McConnell nor Marco Belinelli had the key to unlocking Brad Stevens’ defensive scheme.
The 6-foot-4 guard is a threat from all three levels on offense, so the Celtics will not be able to give him too much breathing room when he has the ball. This will take a defender out of the lane and it lets Simmons go off-ball, where he would have the chance to go to work on the wing assigned to him down low or run a high-low game in the post with Embiid.
Fultz’s return will also help bridge the gap between the Sixers’ first and second units. If Brown decides to start Fultz if/when Philly and Boston meet in the playoffs, Dario Saric would most likely head to the bench, giving the second unit the go-to guy it desperately needed last campaign.
The bench squad was full of gritty and high-energy players in 2017-18, but it lacked scoring and defensive ability, which the Celtics exposed in the playoffs and many teams exploited during the regular season, which led to countless blown third-quarter leads.
The additions of Wilson Chandler, Mike Muscala, and Jonah Bolden provide much-needed athleticism on defense and the ability to run the fast break well on offense, and Saric has the playmaking ability to involve them in the action.
The Sixers’ dearth of wing depth meant average second-stringers constantly burnt the likes of Belinelli, McConnell, Ersan Ilyasova, Trevor Booker, and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot. Adding Chandler and Saric to the reserves will play a huge role in preventing Marcus Smart, Terry Rozier, and Marcus Morris from doing major damage while Embiid, Simmons, and the rest of the Sixers’ starters sit.
When he plays at his highest level, Fultz forces all five defenders to keep an eye on him. Embiid and Simmons have that same presence, and Redick and Covington both need constant attention on the perimeter, especially when they do not need to handle the ball. Bringing the 2017 No. 1 overall pick into the lineup will let the other four starters play with more freedom while Fultz will not have to take on any responsibilities that he has not handled before.
He’s the perfect fit for this Philadelphia 76ers team, and that’s why the franchise traded up to draft him in June of 2017. Now, after a summer recovering his skills with Drew Hanlen, he needs to show why they made that choice.
Experts, analysts, and fans will always compare him to Jayson Tatum, who the Celtics drafted after they dealt the top pick to the Sixers in 2017. The Washington product, if healthy, is the missing piece to the puzzle of beating the Boston Celtics in a seven-game series. But one question remains: did he really find his jump shot and confidence again?