Time is right to stop ‘seeing’ Fultz
CAMDEN, N.J. » Whether it was a deep flaw in the organization’s soul or a blast of sports wisdom likely to spread light for generations, the 76ers spent four years content with one repulsive habit. They would, and they would be proud of it, sacrifice the moment for something that may happen later.
Addictions, the Sixers are revealing at quite an inconvenient moment, can be difficult to escape.
Though things changed when the franchise transitioned from Sam Hinkie and his legendary patience to two generations of Colangelos, who tend to prefer winning, there was something oddly sideways about the end of the Sixers’ regular season. There they were, with Brett Brown regularly shouting out the plan, determined to win premium playoff positioning and the right to swagger into the playoffs. Yet there was Brown, too, continuing to say he wanted to “see” something else: He wanted to see Markelle Fultz, to learn about the rookie’s NBA readiness, to envision how it would all come together when it mattered.
So it was a playoff push, and it was also a camouflaged mini-audition for a player Bryan Colangelo so had to have that he overspent for his draft rights. An accomplished public speaker with the coaching brilliance to pull it off, Brown made it all sound good. That the simplest chunk of the Sixers’ schedule had been saved for the end boosted his effort. So, too, did it help that after wasting 68 games trying to restructure something mysteriously crooked about his shooting shoulder, Fultz wasn’t bad in games that, for enough opponents, were of the morning-shootaround variety.
Brown looked at Fultz, and looked again, even at the cost of playing time for T.J. McConnell, who had by then been in the conversation for Sixth Man of the Year. And as the playoffs hit, Brown was content that whatever it was that had attracted the Sixers to him in the first place was sufficient for his continued use of Fultz, not McConnell, as Ben Simmons’ preferred backup.
“I’ll continue,” Brown announced, when that alignment entered the pre-playoffs conversation, “with what I am doing.”
That lasted about a game and a half.
Not that there weren’t other reasons why the Sixers lost a game, a winning streak and that home-court advantage they’d labored so hard to earn in a 113-103 Game 2 loss to Miami, but somewhere high on that list was that Fultz was not ready to be an NBA postseason factor. Nor was he much better in Game 1, although because the Sixers would win that one by 27, there was no reason to call it into question.
For two playoff games, Fultz has appeared overwhelmed, slow and ill-prepared to add to a fast-pass offense. Monday, Brown put up with him for all of 4:38 before turning back to McConnell. In that span, he saw Fultz miss three shots, commit a foul, make a turnover and be made to look small-time by Dwyane Wade.
To borrow his verb, Brown had seen enough.
“I felt that with the physicality of the game, going with the more experienced type of player, someone that has played the whole season,” Brown said, “was what was on my mind when I made that decision.”
The Heat was physical in Game 1 and filthy in Game 2. Considering that such escalation of conflict has worked, Miami might turn Game 3 into arena football. The Sixers are still good enough to literally fight through that and land in the second round. But if they are in a fight, they can’t be timid about it. And that means the time for auditioning Fultz just to justify Colangelo’s haste not to settle for Jayson Tatum, is over.
Brown admitted Tuesday that, in retrospect, 10 games of regular-season sweat were not sufficient to have readied Fultz for the NBA postseason. So what to do? He can simply use Ben Simmons as his only point guard and surround him with shooters. Or he can pair him with McConnell or Fultz. But unlike in recent days, the coach was not committed to Fultz at all.
“There are challenges,” Brown said. “And how we opt to sub that is on our mind. I think it’s as simple as that. You can have shooters or you can have secondary ballhandlers. And that’s a decision I’ve got to go make.”
Here’s a handy guide, if it helps: McConnell was a better player than Fultz in high school. He was a better player than him in the Pac-12. He has had more success in the NBA. And he was better in Game 2.
Even by Tuesday, before a low-key team workout, Fultz was discussing what he might be at a time when potential is insignificant.
“Just opportunity really,” Fultz said, when asked what he needs to surface as a postseason difference-maker. “I think I have the physicality. I think I have everything. It’s just a matter of if he feels comfortable. I am going to keep doing what I have been doing every day.”
There was time for the Sixers to give players opportunities. That lasted for four years. There was even a brief, 10-game chance to do it again. That has passed, too.
“We’re sticking in this moment now,” Fultz said. “We’re not thinking about the future or next year. We are in the present right now. And we want to go as far as we can this year and prove to everybody that we are talented enough to do that.”
As long as they use their best players, he is correct.