Brown, Fultz to ‘ground-zero’ to find his shot
PHILADELPHIA » He put up a few shots, worked up somewhat of a sweat, and then he was gone.
Markelle Fultz darted past the 76ers’ bench at Wells Fargo Center, past the arms of autograph-seeking fans, and down the tunnel leading to the team’s locker room. No questions (and certainly no answers). No small talk or chit-chat.
Fultz wanted no parts of any distractions, even from adoring fans. It was back to grass-roots workouts for him, said Sixers coach Brett Brown.
“It’s reclaiming his shot. It’s retraining him to shoot the shot he used to have. It’s the continuation of repetitive muscle memory,” Brown said Saturday. “It’s stuff you would do with anybody, just not to the duration that we’re now doing it with Markelle. We feel like we need to go back to that type of level to reclaim what he had.”
Fultz, the consensus No. 1 pick in last summer’s draft, has not played since the season’s first month. At first, the Sixers said the guard needed to correct a muscular imbalance in his right shoulder, a health malady that has since been resolved.
Based upon the words of the club’s general manager, Bryan Colangelo, there’s no reason to believe Fultz will play any time soon. Friday, Colangelo reiterated a familiar refrain that no timetable for Fultz’s return exists. Fultz will play, said Colangelo, when he’s ready to play.
Until that time, Brown is doing with Fultz what he’s done with countless players over nearly two decades coaching in the NBA ... developing young talent.
Sixers fans should be familiar with one of those player projects.
Before the Sixers hosted the LA Clippers, Brown recounted memories of working with Nerlens Noel during the center’s rookie season with the team. Sidelined by ACL rehab, Noel often paired with Brown after team practices and in workouts before games. Brown reminded reporters of the arduous nature of that process, in aiming to improve Noel’s shot while there was little else Noel could do.
“I didn’t let his guide hand come to the ball until after Christmas. It’s true,” Brown said of Noel, now a deep reserve for the Dallas Mavericks. “Everything was just shadow hand or one-handed. You set the table, set the diamond, and we’d talk about release points and basic fundamentals that I’d do with my 13-year-old son.”
The videos that have emerged lately from the Sixers’ practice facility show the 19-year-old Fultz hoisting shots from inside the paint and, occasionally, not straying too far from the restricted zone. Those videos don’t exactly render the enticing, highlight-reel shot attempts that made Fultz a coveted draft choice. But, as Brown indicated, “we haven’t moved” beyond that.
“Taking him further out when, at times, it’s not comfortable isn’t smart,” Brown said. “I love it. It’s groundzero coaching to do the form and technique stuff I’ve just mentioned. He’s great. It’s not like, ‘Oh, Markelle is bored.’ He buys in. He’s a prideful student. He wants to fix and reclaim what he had. He’s all ours. We take him in there and we do it. We do it all the time. We do it almost every single day.”
Fultz dazzled in the Utah summer league, where he averaged 20 points over two games and displayed abundantly his ready-made NBA skill of creating his own shot.
Those performances were the carryover from his time at the University of Washington, where he spent his only NCAA season. He put up the best statistical season in Huskies history, with per-game averages of 23 points and nearly six assists and six rebounds. He also shot an impressive 41.3 percent from 3-point range.
Those numbers provide evidentiary support for why the Sixers sent two first-round draft picks to Boston for the right to slide up to No. 1 to nab Fultz. And they make Fultz’s regression that much more difficult to explain.
The Sixers have had a difficult time explaining it. That’s why Colangelo went two months between speaking with the media. That’s why Colangelo, at one point in his Friday meeting with reporters, quizzically said to them, “Any questions on the trade deadline?”
For the moment … um, no. The focus around the Sixers, at least partially, is to remain on Fultz. Brown gets it, though he won’t have much to share about Fultz other than the details pertaining to their shooting clinics.
“We live at home plate,” the coach said. “We’re going back to ground zero and just going through slow, progressive, fundamental stuff.”