Markelle Fultz ready to take his best shot
76ers need impact from second-year player
CAMDEN, N.J. » Before he could retrieve his jump shot, Markelle Fultz realized he first had to recover his confidence. Or was it the other way around? Did his shot go missing last season because he lacked selfassurance? Or did he leak confidence once his shooting form deteriorated into something of shotput tutorial?
“Everybody knows what happened last year,” Fultz said Friday, a day before the opening of the Sixers’ training camp. “So this summer was just about me working to get my mechanics back, my confidence back, my swagger back.”
Some knew what happened last season, when Fultz, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 draft, did a 67-game injured-list shift to correct a malfunction in his shooting shoulder. At least that’s how it was advertised. But he came back to play the final 10 regular-season games and three in the playoffs, jacking up a total of one threepoint shot. And after a 1-for-8 shooting start to his postseason, Brett Brown stopped putting him in the game at all.
So he was healthy enough to play. But his shot was not falling. And by the offseason, even Fultz’ personal coach, Drew Hanlen, was quoted as saying the guard had the “yips” last season, a hint that the shooting percentage had a deeper explanation than the shoulder malfunction.
“I think that was a mis-term of words,” Fultz said. “But me and Drew have talked. What happened last year was an injury. Let me get that straight. It was an injury that happened that didn’t allow me to go through a certain path that I needed to shoot the ball. And just like any normal person, when you are used to doing something
the same way each and every day and something happens, of course you’re going to start thinking about it. It’s just normal.
“And of course I had that injury happen.”
It’s a reasonable story, for in his one season at the University of Washington, Fultz did shoot 126 threepointers and made 52. And even if the three-point distance is greater in the NBA, the foul-shot distance is not. And in college, Fultz was a respectable 64.9 percent foul shooter.
So if it was the shoulder that caused him to begin shooting free throws with an unorthodox, creaky style last season, he has had an entire summer to make the correction.
“People took certain things about me changing shots and things, and ran with it,” Fultz said. “But that didn’t affect me. That’s why I didn’t come out last year and try to go against the media or whatever. I was just worried about getting back to being healthy and doing what I had to do.
“That’s what I did this summer. So, I’m happy.”
Fultz is 20, with only a small chunk of NBA experience. Brett Brown said Fultz took 150,000 shots in the summer, a number that does pencil out if he were attempting
500 of them at a pop, three times a day. And with coaches and trainers and ball-retrieval apparatus, that is more than possible.
With that, Fultz will start his second training camp Saturday with a functioning shoulder and an openminded coach.
“I normally work hard,” he said. “I worked harder this summer. I had the motivation because last year the injury stopped me from being 100 percent. This summer, I worked hard to get my shot back to where I like it. I am confident going in. I am excited for the season. And I want to help my team any way I can.”
••• On the eve of training camp, the Sixers’ three draftnight acquisitions were on the injury report.
Shake Milton, on a twoway contract with G-League Delaware, has been cleared for limited contact after an offseason back injury. He is “progressing,” the report said.
Landry Shamet, the 26th overall pick in the first round, has been healed of an ankle injury and will be available for full camp work.
Zhaire Smith, who arrived in a draft-night flip for Mikal Bridges, remains in a walking cast as he recovers from a foot fracture. Friday, the Texas Tech swingman was cleared to begin full weight bearing. In another four weeks, he will be re-evaluated.
“I’m just trying to get better
every day,” Smith said. “I am doing pool work, lifting, rehabbing. I am just trying to get right.”
••• The promotion of Elton Brand from G-League executive to NBA general manager was popular among the Sixers.
“As soon as I heard the news, I remembered dunking on him two years ago,” said Joel Embiid, of when he and Brand were Sixers teammates. “We actually talked about it when he got job. I remember dunking on him really bad. And it was crazy. That was just two years ago. And, he is the G.M. Much respect. I was happy for him.”
So was J.J. Redick, who, like Brand, played for Duke.
“I am proud of him,” Redick said. “He doesn’t know this, but he was a mentor for me. He always gave me sage wisdom. It is remarkable to see his rise in the organization. It speaks to who he is as a man and a leader. I couldn’t be more excited for him.”
••• Including newcomers Smith, Shamet, Milton, Jonah Bolden, Anthony Brown, Wilson Chandler, Mike Muscala and Norvel Pelle, the Sixers have 19 players on their training camp roster. The holdovers: Fultz, Embiid, Redick, Ben Simmons, Robert Covington, Dario Saric, Furkan Korkmaz, Amir Johnson, Jerryd Bayless, T.J. McConnell and Demetrius Jackson.