How Markelle Fultz Lost The Ability To Shoot | The Biggest Mystery in NBA History

philadelphia 76ers select markelle fultz from the university of washington that's a bad looking free throw right there i hate to be the one to say this but you know he's been a bus for them this is the most bizarre thing we've ever seen from a number one overall pick in the draft right now it appears to be the biggest bust in nba history his high school game there we go listen to the crowd listen to the reaction they're getting on their feet late in the second quarter where fultz was about to check back in but the sixers went with mcconnell instead psychologically something very bad has happened to this kid in all my years of watching the nba no story of a player has ever stuck with me like markelle fultz's has there's so many theories regarding what happened and how it transpired so many layers that extend past his basketball life and into his personal life markell was drafted into what seemed like an excellent situation surrounded by two of the best youngest players in the league the chances of failing seemed so incredibly minuscule the way he failed is a combination of mismanagement unlucky events and the unfortunate pressure of being drafted with the top pick there's no definitive moment in the entirety of fultz's saga that you can point to and say this is where it all went wrong however you can notice small details here and there that snowballed over time until it was too late the shoulder injury may have taken the attention but they won't tell you the full story that's where i come in this is the real story about the rise and fall of markel volts [Music] fultz was a five-star prospect at the math academy one of the best high schools for athletes what many don't remember about this time is that just two years previously fultz was cut from his sophomore team he took this personally and worked even harder on his skills eventually making it to the varsity team he then dominated took over the high school scene and asserted himself as one of the best players in the nation markel had plenty of accomplishments at such a young age so the choices for college seemed widespread with many big names on the horizon despite this he ended up choosing washington university a school that's known for having many former nba players like isaiah thomas de jonte murray and brandon roy what's interesting to note is that all of these players weren't the best in their class roy was the sixth pick in the 2006 draft de jonte was a late first rounder and isaiah was the last pick why not choose a more popular school fellow guards of that draft class like deer and fox and lonzo ball chose kentucky and ucla which were much more known and successful what gives to markel when he entered the gym it was simply love at first sight and washington offered him a contract months before the other schools that's understandable but also thought-provoking the top player in the nation chose a school that hadn't qualified for the ncaa tournament in six years nonetheless kell arrived as the washington husky and burst onto the scene his skill set as a guard was unmatched he could be an excellent playmaker but also create shots for himself off the dribble he was a terrific finisher with poster dunks and flashy layups every night and perhaps the most coveted aspect of his game was his effortless sharpshooting he could rise up over any defender pull up from 30 and hear the net swish fultz could do everything as a point guard offensively his defense however was often criticized as lackadaisical yet with him standing at six feet four inches there was a perfectly good reason to assume he'd develop a strong defensive game at the next level what's important to highlight is that at this time in every single mock draft fultz was at the top not top point guard top player overall it's easy to look back now with revisionist history and make the bold claim that jason tatum should have gone first overall but evidence from 2017 shows otherwise the washington huskies went 9 and 22 not even cracking the tournament and all eyes went to the man himself regarding this if he was so good then how come his team lost so much false fans pointed out that the roster itself lacked talent which is true and the basketball world paid no mind to this losing record because the 2017 draft was fastly approaching the 2017 draft lottery took place with the boston celtics landing the top slot they cut this pick for about a month when suddenly out of nowhere they traded down with the sixers receiving the third pick as philly stepped up to one fans immediately began criticizing boston general manager danny ainge for making such a decision how could you pass up the opportunity to draft what seemed like the perfect guard looking back we truly don't know why the celtics made this decision they could have just been that infatuated with jason tatum the offensively polished forward from duke either that or they could have seen something wrong with markelle fultz he struggled badly in his workout with the seas his shot form looked fine but the end result was a clank off the rim other fans love pointing to fultz's free-throw percentage as a reason that we should have been concerned but that's also pure revisionist history they claim the true way to determine if somebody is a shooter is by their free throws which i agree with however when fultz arrives in the league it's not that he couldn't make threes but that he was physically incapable of shooting jump shots at all we'll never know for sure why boston skipped on markel and all of the media attention soon went to philly as they had a chance to form a dynasty [Music] fultz simmons embiid two number one picks and one third pick who had shown flashes of greatness markel had another terrible workout with philly just a few days before the draft but now it was far too late to think anything of that you'd already given up the assets to get here fultz's trainer excused this by simply saying the kid was nervous which made sense at the time reminder it's easy to say now that these were red flags but it makes no sense to skip on the best prospect in the class because of a few bad workouts philly chose him with the first pick a few days later and the nba world exploded into excitement as markell walked towards the stage in his big moment a few interesting words were uttered by rhys davis the espn draft analyst an avid bmx biker and now he he loves to throw caution to the wind did you catch that an avid bmx biker an avid bmx biker this sentence is often referenced by many when the question of what happened arises the theory goes as followed fultz being a big fan of biking injured his shoulder and refused to tell the sixers organization so his contract wouldn't be voided i find this theory to be incorrect had this motor accident been the case structural damage would have been found in folsom's shoulder however the sixers stated multiple times that this wasn't the case and there wasn't anything damaged in his shoulder that fact in itself crumbles this theory to pieces in other news jason tatum the player philly essentially traded foltz for talked in his draft interview he said that boston would have taken in with the number one pick had they not traded down immediately sixers and nba fans alike mocked this statement because at the time it sounded ludicrous this once again puts into question why did danny ainge feel so strongly about skipping on fultz fast forward to summer league the first game on the board was sixers vs celtics fultz vs tatum and fans were excited the two young guns battled it out fultz hit flashy shots tatum threw down dunks it was looking like a future rivalry was setting itself in stone jason tatum however got the last laugh hitting a long jumper to win the game overall markel played well but was inefficient he was sloppy and turned it over quite a bit although that was expected from a young player in his first ever game on the other hand markell looked poised with many jumpers hitting this smooth mid-range jay or hezy pull-up jimbo as kevin durant tweeted the defense was fantastic as well the blocked shots by markel were highlight-worthy showing the elite defensive potential in all of those great moments however the first domino in the full saga began to fall take a look at the jump shot in these clips not bad looking at all but different from the forum he had at washington much lower and not the same high release point as before the next game against the jazz he continued to play well dropping 23 points with a flurry of more jump shots the form was still visibly different than his college one but since they were going in nobody seemed to notice his third summer league game was when the next domino fell against the warriors fultz was incredibly aggressive in the paint driving every single time then as he went up for a block he came down hard and injured his ankle thus sidelining him for the rest of summer league injuries happen and this specific ankle wasn't some sort of a threat to his health at all the real problem here is that by sustaining this injury he was no longer playing and the sixers as a team wouldn't be able to fully monitor him until the season began a few months later in between this period of the summer league injury and the impending season something went horribly wrong for markelle fultz throughout his time in a sixers uniform so far his form visually seemed fine but he wasn't taking as many jump shots as when he was in college in fact that final game against the warriors saw him only shooting one jumper a moving mid-range bucket these shooting and jump shot issues didn't begin after the ankle injury but before it quite possibly during the draft there were many rumors supporting the idea that he never wanted to come to philly in the first place so when he heard the news of the sixers moving up to draft him that could have been a tough pill to swallow tanking to the top by iran weitzman adds more ammo to the mental hurdles markel had to go through he had a fight with his mother then went to the gym and his form looked horrendous lloyd pierce the sixers assistant coach at the time worked with fultz on an off day after summer league had closed i've never seen anything like that before pierce said to colleagues after the workout this kid can't shoot none of this had made the news though nobody really knew about fultz's problems so he went to the only person he trusted with basketball his longtime trainer keith williams keith had been training fultz for years so when markell came to him and said that he believed somebody was holding down his arms as he was lifting to shoot they tried multiple practices to fix this issue one of which was him shooting while lying on the gym floor or dribbling the ball into his shot to create a rhythm we don't know what effect this training had on fultz or his shot but it certainly wasn't positive october 18th 2017 was the first game of markelle fultz's pro career and it was a complete mess don't get me wrong he showed flashes with his finishing ability and defense but it seemed like throughout it all he was a shadow of his former self once again the lack of jump shots was present he shot one the entire game this off-balance mid-range two-pointer looked great actually and gave sixers fans hope that markell could eventually return to his old ways we now know that fultz has always been better with moving off-balance shots the precise reason for this is undetermined but it's a mix of him not thinking while shooting and it just being a more comfortable shot and perhaps the worst moment of the game fultz was fouled driving inside and shot two of the worst free throws i've ever seen in my life it's easy for any bystander to look at this moment and laugh at a professional basketball player having the shot of a child but just think about it for a moment this was a 19 year old rookie someone who was selected number one overall with monumental expectations of being the finishing piece for a franchise a guy who was an absolute sharpshooter just a few months ago for whatever reason is unable to lift up his shoulders and is still voluntarily playing games to try and help his team this pattern of shooting woes continued for a few more games until fultz was yanked from the team and listed as out for the foreseeable future the sixer said he had scapular muscle imbalance which is a fancy way for saying his shoulder just wasn't right there was also word from his agent raymond brothers that fultz had fluid taken out of his shoulder this was then changed to having fluid put in his shoulder there seemed to be no understanding of what was going on with all of this happening the sixers general manager brian colangelo said that there was nothing wrong physically with fultz for the next five months it was complete radio silence fultz quietly trained and retooled his jump shot because now he lacked the strength to shoot from a few feet away there were moments in the recovery process where nba media members forgot he was human to the point where fellow veteran teammate j.j reddick had to explicitly tell them to leave foltz alone first thank you for that you know that was like a another big big brother moment that you you know you still stood up for me and it made me feel even better other basketball media began to hop on the false criticism as well some jumping to calling him a bust already throughout all of this fultz maintained that what was going on was an injury his rookie season at this point was a complete disaster five games played and it seemed like he never get the chance to show what he was capable of that was the case until in late march of 2018 when markell went to the head coach at the time brett brown and told him i'm ready markelle fultz will play tonight uh it was his decision i mean it's it's ridiculous what what he's been through and he understands it and i understand it you know that's the the scrutiny you get when somebody says and with the first pick of the 2017 nba draft the philadelphia 76ers select markelle fultz markelle fultz will play tonight those were the words that rang across the nba world it was five months of absolute disaster confusion lost hope yet in just a normal regular season game against the denver nuggets fultz would suddenly be returning in his first game back he dropped 10 points and 8 assists once the game slowed down you could see the potential begin to show hard drives to the rim clever passes and a smooth mid-range game the only issue is that with this return there were no three-point attempts as well as no free throws those were the two biggest issues and it seemed like they weren't being fixed anyone who brought this up however was quickly silenced because most were happy foltz was playing at all philly ended up winning their last nine games of the season markel played okay but there still weren't any three-pointers and the free throw was still broken many were rightfully confused at why the same issues were still here five months later but just shrugged their shoulders and hoped it would be fixed with time in the last game of the 2017 season fultz posted the youngest triple double in nba history with 12 points 10 assists and 10 rebounds an overall solid game that showed he could play well even without a jump shot at the end when he grabbed his tenth board he was mobbed by his teammates showing how much they believed in the kid it was a great thing to see fast forward to the playoffs and full sparely plays getting dnps in the second round series versus boston the reason for this varied on who you asked philly claimed it was because fultz needed more time before playing in the postseason and others said it was because fultz just wasn't good enough the series against the celtics had to be one of the most mentally challenging events a rookie could ever go through seeing jason tatum the guy who was traded for you dropped bucket after bucket to eliminate your team as you could do nothing but sit and watch it was tough as the sixers lost 4-1 there was disappointment but hope in the air it was a wild season so the off-season could be a time for everything to slow down and let fultz recover to his full abilities remember just 12 months ago he was the top prospect in the nation what if all he needed was some time to rest and recoup fultz and joel embiid discussed off-season training plans and embiid recommended drew hanlon as a trainer hanlon is known for training some of the best players in the game and with his ever so popular social media presence hype was on the way in fultz town over the summer hanlon released videos of markel working out not showing any videos of the form but promising that he'd turn him into an all-star ambide and simmons were great and all but none of this will work out unless fultz truly develops into the player they hope he can become fast forward to the 2018-19 season markel talks about his renewed confidence how the summer was one of his hardest working and that he was ready to become the third star in the preseason fultz looked okay his mid-range shot looked pure which was reassuring plus his finishing and playmaking was solid he did make one three-pointer the first of his nba career a corner wide open triple the form looks not bad a little on the slow side but much better than the disaster that was his rookie season the only issue is that once again the shot was nothing like his college one the forum was slow and had a lower release point is this really a shot that he could shoot 40 percent from three with like he did in college the 2018-19 season began with monolithic expectations for markel it was time to show that untapped potential and that new shooting it all started in boston td garden a rematch of last season's playoff series and philly's chance to get revenge unfortunately boston blew the sixers out tatum shined and fultz was invisible he scored five points total two of seven from the field and one jump shot which was an off-balance two-pointer this is when fans really began to get upset how is it that after all of this time markel still couldn't shoot any threes philly started out the season 8 and 5 false looking mediocre with little to no three-pointers he also made headlines for his wacky free-throw forms the infamous double pump as well as whatever this is was worrying the sixers weren't impressed and by now they had run out of patience they soon traded for all-star forward jimmy butler which yanked markell out of the starting lineup and onto the bench november 19th 2018 was fultz's last game with the sixers his agent announced that they'd be looking for a shoulder specialist to diagnose an injury and markel was out indefinitely this was the second straight year that he played for a few games then get pulled out before he had a chance to truly get his feet wet in the game of basketball the weird part about all of this is that fultz was hitting mid-range shots at a solid clip there were some games when he hit multiple 15-footers so why couldn't that translate to three-pointers right after the sun's game fultz talked with alan iverson you gotta wonder if ai told him to trust his body and sit out a few weeks later he was diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome it's a condition that affects the shoulder some were skeptical as they believed fultz's team made up this injury to mask the fact he simply forgot how to shoot others were happy that his injury was finally diagnosed and that he could begin his recovery process the trade deadline arrived and fultz was shipped out to the orlando magic for jonathan simmons and a heavily protected first-round pick philly was all in for a title run with their big four they didn't have time to wait for markell to get better for fultz orlando seemed like a good spot a team with much less media attention who didn't have championship hoax hopefully here he can return to his number one pick self this trade represents the failure of what could have been fultz embiid and simmons were expected to be one of the best big threes the league had to offer and instead for whatever mysterious shoulder-related issue it just couldn't come to fruition the sixers have never been the same for years they've lacked a shock-creating guard to lead their team markell was supposed to be that guy and didn't pan out once he arrived in orlando markel began working with the magic staff to get healthy he didn't play for the rest of the 2018-19 season meaning he played 33 games total with the sixers 33 he never really got a fair chance to showcase his skills of why he was the number one pick and just as quickly as he was in philly he was out foles made his magic debut on october 23 2019 he hit a few mid-range shots and threw down a vicious slam the three-pointer after two and a half years still remained a non-factor at this point fans just focused on other aspects of his game no point in dwelling on the jump shot throughout the season fultz showed flashes whether it was going toe-to-toe with lebron james down the stretch throwing down poster dunks in transition or simply staying healthy markel impressed many with his play and averaged career-best numbers 12 points a night on 47 shooting five assists and five rebounds per contest with elite finishing disciplined defense and great mid-range shooting he shot an ugly 26 from downtown the only difference between orlando and philly was the fact that he simply attempted more threes he was no longer hesitating as he once did when he caught it beyond the perimeter he fired away the weirdest part is that he was so damn good shooting mid-range shots there were times when he would light up an opposing team with just jumpers his free throws were vastly improved as well gone were the days of the double pump fultz shot 73 from the line which was right around the league average and the forum looked much more consistent fast forward to the bubble and the eighth seeded magic squared off against the bucks game one was unforgettable because orlando shot milwaukee absolutely dominating them with fultz putting up 15 points it finally felt like he was a part of a team a culture he was the quarterback to this upset victory they ended up losing in five but fultz played well in his first ever real playoff series the narrative now surrounding markel is simple he's a fine player without a three point shot a high level bench player slash low level starter if he really wants to live up to that number one hype however he must gain an outside shot to become an all-star the 2020-21 season began and fultz immediately went to work averaging 20 points per game on high efficiency destroying the washington wizards and looking like a star in the making he had no three-point shot but it didn't look like he needed one down the stretch he simply bulldozed the defense out of the way just a few games later his knee collapsed and he tore his acl the magic were six and two number one in the east before he went down fultz had shown tons of progress yet in the core of this success we forgot about why we hadn't seen this progress in so long injuries it was heartbreaking and he's been recovering since january this puts his future in a bit of a question mark it's clear the talent is there but he hasn't been healthy nearly as much as he should be to showcase what he's capable of his game still has one glaring weakness which is the lack of a three-point shot and if he never develops that essential skill he'll never reach the all-star potential he's capable of as for my theory regarding markel i think it was a mix of injury and mental pressure somewhere along the line he must have developed some shoulder issues which then added a hitch to his shot instead of resting and waiting he tried to play through it thus developing a lack of confidence in his shooting ability once that shoulder issue went away the mental block remained and he has since not been able to get over it he also lacks the strength shooting the ball from behind the perimeter from 15 feet the form looks beautiful from 22 feet it looks like he needs more umph he's also good at shooting off the dribble which requires less thinking when putting the ball up compared to standstill we can sit here and theorize all we want but no one really knows what happened besides fultz himself and he said it was an injury so let's believe him the markelle fultz saga is truly one of the most heartbreaking stories the nba has ever seen one of the most hyped-up prospects in years went from a surefire all-star compared to james harden to forgotten by many in orlando there's still a real chance he blossoms into a star player someone with as much talent as he possesses will always stick around but it all resides on him developing a perimeter game you can watch the nba for the rest of your life and you'll never see a story like fultz's ever transpire again it's now up to him to make that story have a good ending [Music]

Channel: dylandoesbasketball

Views: 3,371,591

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Id: MyW9FZskhko

Length: 28min 16sec (1696 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 21 2021