How The NBA's 'Biggest Bust' Saved His Career

out of all the number one picks in NBA history Markel faultz says arguably the weirdest career ever yet out of all first overall picks in the league he's the least talked about is he a bust or is there hope for him becoming an All-Star this is the rise fall and Rise Again of Markel faults markel's odds of making the NBA were always super slim just like he was his coaches nicknamed him Bambi because of his skinny legs and bony knees his knees were so frail that Markell would be in pain if he played too much and because faults as a high school sophomore was only five foot nine he got cut from the varsity team however over the summer Bambi grew to six foot three and suddenly he could run like a full-grown deer balls returned to the varsity team and became the Washington conference Player of the Year a two-time conference champion and a McDonald's All-American Markell then represented Team USA at the under-18 world championship in Chile Where The Americans won the gold and false took home the tournament MVP he chose to stay home and play for the University of Washington where he averaged 23 points six rebounds and 6 assists shooting over 40 percent for three in a stacked draft that also included Jason Tatum Donovan Mitchell bam out of Bayou Laurie markkanen and Alonzo ball among many other quality players there was little doubt about who was going to go number one bolts had no real weaknesses in his game if the team clogged the paint he'd kill him with his outside shot either from three or from the mid-range if they guarded him tight he had the athleticism ball handling and all kinds of herky-jerky pace changing moves to shake off his Defender and get to the cup if the opponent doubled false he was more than capable of setting up his teammates Proficiency in the pick and roll crossovers hesitations rebounding defense You Name It Bolts could do it all and he was often compared to Damian Lillard a week before the draft Markel worked out with the Philadelphia 76ers and their decision was made they had to get this guy the 76ers were so in love with his talent that they decided to trade up in the draft to get the number one overall pick which the Celtics owned in return Philly gave up the number three pick and their 2018 first rounder to Boston it wasn't a small price but the 70 Sixers didn't care and all they wanted was false and that's how Markell became the first pick in the 2017 NBA draft Markel from the University of Washington in four years prior to drafting Markel Philly had a 75-253 record a 23 win rate by far the worst in the NBA after years of tanking and high lottery picks faults was supposed to be the perfect fit with Joel embiid and Ben Simmons in theory their three golden pieces complemented each other perfectly it didn't matter that Simmons Couldn't Shoot because embiid and faults could it didn't matter that fault sometimes gambled for steals because he had Ben and JoJo behind him but then in September of 2017 just a few months after the draft the Bizarro trains surrounding Markel faults had left the station before the Sixers had started their training camp markell's longtime coach and Mentor Keith Williams had noticed something extremely unusual his prized pupil had a noticeable change in his jump shot with fultz's release point now starting at his chest and not above his head as usual when Williams asked about the funky release faultz told him it feels like somebody's holding my arms down when the training camp started Sixers coach Brett Brown acknowledged knowledge that faults had changed his shooting form since the draft but nothing was alarming yet after all many young players Tinker with their shooting form earlier in their careers but then the preseason started and it seemed like false's jump shot changed again looking completely discombobulated and ineffective Brown publicly admitted that he was not happy with markel's new shooting form and falz said it was because he was feeling soreness in his shoulder on October 18th false had his NBA debut with 10 points three rebounds and one assist in 18 minutes of play in his first four games and 76 total minutes fultz averaged six points on 33 percent shooting two rebounds and two assists he didn't attempt a single three-pointer and he shot 50 percent from the free throw line one of the worst marks in the entire NBA his shooting struggles quickly made headlines in the media because it was truly one of the most bizarre things in the history of the NBA in the space of three months faults went from a fast compact most of all precise shooting stroke to an ugly Twitchy poor excuse for a jump shot he's been terrible and and if he's been terrible because his shoulder hurts then take care of your shoulder which is I think what they're going to do right now some people's first idea was that his shooting touch was stolen by monstars from Space Jam others joked that he developed a glitch in his shot similar to Charles Barkley's crooked golf swing the situation quickly became the biggest mystery in the NBA and just like Waldo people kept asking where is markell's jumper because he certainly couldn't find it different people started saying different things about this case and it was tough to grasp what was true and what wasn't he's got a lot of personal things that's going on and have nothing to do with basketball that has drastically affected his ability to play basketball on October 5th Raymond Brothers bolts his agent said false had fluid drained from his shoulder before the season began on October 24th Brothers retracted from his earlier statement saying false head fluid put in not taken out on October 29th Philadelphia ruled out faults indefinitely citing soreness and scapular muscle imbalance in his right shoulder on November 19th false saw a shoulder specialist who said that the soreness is painting and the muscle balance is improving and faults will continue with Physiotherapy and begin progressing toward full basketball activities his shoulder is one thing psychologically he also needs help on January 17 2018 a video of false shooting and practice surfaced with another attempt to change his form but still looking far from natural on February 6th Foltz publicly admitted to having to relearn a functional shot and we could see him practicing shots from the paint like he was a basketball beginner and then Philadelphia finally reintegrated Markell into the team for the final 10 games of the regular season markelle fultz will play tonight and he averaged seven points on 42 shooting three rebounds and 4.5 assists he shot an abysmal 44 percent from the free throw line and attempted just one three-pointer however on April 11th at the age of 19 years old and 317 days fultz became the youngest player in NBA history at the time to record a triple-double putting up 13 points 10 rebounds and 10 assists in a 130-95 win over the Milwaukee box faults then played in three playoff games against Miami for a total of 23 minutes in game one he shot one for four in game two he went over three and in game three he didn't shoot at all and that's how the first overall pick finished his rookie season zero points zero shots with a jump shot that looked worse than a rec league kid in the off-season Markell hired the famous shooting Guru Drew Hanlon to help him with his shot it was a very productive summer I'm happy with the work I put in with Drew you know we put up a lot of shots a lot of hours in the gym and I'm happy with where I'm at right now going into training camp so but several weeks later handling and false had a public fight with each one blaming the other for the lack of success Hanlon said that Markell had The Yips that he completely forgot how to shoot and had multiple hitches in his shot volts said that it was all because of an injury and the duo continued to have a rocky relationship and fultz eventually fired the shooting coach in September of 2018 before the start of his second training camp false said that his injury was gone and that his shooting form had returned to its original state and that his jumper was bad better than ever in his second game of the season Markell made his first career three-pointer which made the Sixers fans ecstatic but despite some layers of success his game was far from okay in the first 19 games of the Season false averaged eight three and three and his free throws threes or any kind of Jumper was still awful as his shots kept missing the target the chaos around him grew exponentially the relationship with his private coaches Brett Brown and general manager Jerry Colangelo got messy and confusing with everybody saying different things to the media and for all the people who still believed his talents were stolen by Space Jam my stars I got his talent air Theory gained traction when faults had spasms and glitches in his body in a game against Memphis but in reality markel's diagnosis came about a month later it was revealed that faults suffered from thoracic outlet syndrome which is a space between the collarbone and the first rib where nerves and blood vessels connect the arm with the brain with this syndrome the collarbone and the rib compress all the nerves and blood vessels which can cause numbness and muscle weakness in the arm and although it wasn't ideal it cleared the air around Markell nobody believed that he was crazy anymore or that he had The Yips however identifying the problem was a small relief because it was still a huge problem faults got stuck on the bench and after a few months he asked for a trade on February 7 2019 Holtz was traded to the Orlando Magic in exchange for Jonathan Simmons and two picks and he washed his hands with with Philly hopefully we could get a guy that's humble and can be healthy and be the number one pick that you know we thought he would be Billy was getting 20 cents on the dollar but they were happy to get rid of all the drama for the magic it was a low risk High reward kind of scenario and they were hoping he'd fix his issues and fulfill his potential but when he got to Orlando they decided to shut him down for the rest of the season and give him time to recover Boltz played his first game for the Magic in October 2019 finishing with 12 points and six assists he appeared in 60 of 72 games for the Magic and was reasonably effective not LeBron James productive not at an All-Star level but he was decent false averaged 12 points and five assists per game even making some threes or at least showing the willingness to shoot them but most of the time false played within his means and stuck to what he did well without taking too many jumpers he was great in transition finishing around the rim or setting up teammates and because Orlando's management had great belief in him and his work ethic they gave faults a 50 million dollar four-year extension for comparison Steph Curry's second contract was worth 44 million dollars so when the next season started fultz again had big expectations ahead of him but again Health wasn't on his side after just eight games where he averaged 13 points and five assists per game false tore his ACL he was done for the season his recovery was longer than some people expected and in 2022 he played Just 18 games finishing with 11 points and five assists in 20 minutes on the court if you ask anybody what's the thing they love the most and ask them what how does it feel to be taken away from you it's tough I just wanted to go out there if I had no arms I would still want to play basketball so for the first five Seas in the league he played 131 out of a possible 410 games which is less than 30 percent and one of the worst marks ever for a number one pick he averaged under 11 points and five assists per game and 25 minutes on the court and his pedigree as a shooter was long forgotten but false wasn't done and he refused to settle as a bust just make sure I have fun you know because you never know when it's gonna end you never know when it's going to be the last time playing so my biggest thing is when I go on the floors have fun and compete at a high level for the 22-23 season he came back more ready than ever and it showed Bolt's averaged career highs across the board averaging 14 points six assists and 1.5 steals in 29 minutes per game he shot a very efficient 51 from the field and a solid 78 from the Line and 31 from three his shot still looks kind of crooked but nowhere near as ugly as it was in Philadelphia and false has gotten more comfortable with his mid-range game is one of the best in the NBA and he hit 40 percent of his midis in the past season on top of his offense he's been a solid Defender as well proving that he'll be an NBA player in years to come but despite the notoriety of the number one pick faults has almost never talked about in the NBA media cycle it feels like outside of Orlando people don't even know he exists you know what I forgot all about Markel well that's what maybe they're hoping and this is what makes his case particularly strange if folks came into the league and played poorly he wouldn't be the first number one pick to do so Anthony Bennett Michael olwakandi and Kwame Brown are just a few of the players who fall into this group as NBA GM simply overvalued their success in high school and college and wrongly believe their talent would translate to the NBA there are also other high draft picks whose careers got destroyed by injuries most notably Greg Odom Sam Bowie or Bill Walton but nobody in NBA history forgot how to shoot no lottery pick came to the NBA with shooting as a strength and then couldn't hit a free throw fault's game completely changed and he became this crooked version of himself with a broken jumper and trashed Confidence from the first pick of the draft Foltz became a player who would have problems playing in the G League it's very hard to diagnose thoracic outlet syndrome because it isn't very detectable by MRI or a CAT scan that's why I and the doctors thought nothing was going on I just kept working which made it worse I went from shooting 40 in college to coming into the NBA without a jumper people were like he changed his shot like what would I change my shot for there's no reason after the diagnosis he had to completely rework and remodel his game his jump shot and his place in the NBA after he succeeded he tore up his ACL only to come back from it stronger and better than ever markel's Road was unlike anything we've seen before in the NBA and Sports in general we don't know the extent of his shoulder mobility and if he's ever going to shoot 40 from three but we are rooting for him if he stays healthy he's got the athleticism and the tools to be a solid role player for the next 10 years if he gets a shoulder where it was he might still prove everyone wrong and start hitting threes and bunches and that would be one of the most beautiful comeback stories in recent NBA history

Channel: Nonstop

Views: 780,120

Keywords: NBA, Markelle Fultz

Id: 3fTfXBkvSdM

Length: 13min 23sec (803 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 30 2023