Sixers trade Markelle Fultz to Magic
They pick up Orlando’s Jonathon Simmons, a first-round pick and a second-round pick.
Markelle Fultz's crazy career as a Sixer is mercifully over.
The Sixers on Thursday traded Fultz to the Orlando Magic for Jonathon Simmons, a first-round pick and a second-round pick. The first-round pick is top-20 protected and via Oklahoma City.
ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski was the first to report the trade.
Fultz's bizarre career has been well-documented. The Sixers traded up two spots in the 2017 draft to take him with the first overall pick. He played well in the ensuing summer league before injuring his ankle.
Then at some point between then and training camp, Fultz suffered a mysterious shoulder injury and/or developed a case of the “yips” and lost his jump shot. He's been searching for it ever since and played a grand total of 33 games for the Sixers over two seasons.
Fultz played the first 19 this season but abruptly left the team in November in order to visit multiple doctors in New York. He finally was diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome, began rehabbing in Los Angeles and hasn't played since.
So Fultz's career as a Sixer looks likes this: 33 games, 15 starts, 7.7 ppg, 3.7 rpg, and 3.1 apg. He shot 41.4 percent from the floor and 26.7 percent from three.
Maybe a change in scenery will do the trick. But that seems too simple. And why Fultz would need one is a convenient but strange assessment. This is only his second season in Philly, and the fans have done anything but run him out of town. They cheered almost every movement in the home opener against Chicago.
But now that's in the past.
That the Sixers actually received a first-round pick, protected or not, has to be considered a win. Fultz's value at this point is impossible to determine. The bigger win might be passing on the soap opera to a different team.
Meanwhile, the Sixers added another bench piece in Simmons, a 29-year-old shooting guard who in 41 games this season for the Magic is averaging 6.9 points and 2.3 assists in 20.6 minutes per game. He's shooting only 22.9 percent from 3 and 36.4 percent overall.
He started 50 of 69 games played last season and averaged 13.9 points per game while shooting 46.5 percent overall and 33.8 percent from 3.
Simmons along with James Ennis, acquired earlier Thursday, add needed depth to the bench, which was already thin and further depleted in the blockbuster deal for Tobias Harris.