NEARING FULTZ STRENGTH
No. 1 pick Markelle returns to court for Sixers as playoffs approach
PHILADELPHIA » Wherever he walked Monday night in the Wells Fargo Center, Brett Brown received a handshake. Whenever he did, he had a response.
“More work to do.” “More to do.” “More.” Without playing a game Sunday, the Sixers had won an NBA playoff spot, the result of the tiebreakers clicking into just the right combination. But the 76ers had not been about that for weeks. They had been about winning homecourt advantages. And, by their actions, they had been about winning a championship.
Monday, they gave one more indication that they will not take the postseason lightly. They activated Markelle Fultz.
Though Fultz had not played since the fourth game of the season due to a shoulder imbalance, and while he might not prove sufficiently rehabilitated to make a difference in the playoffs, the No. 1 overall pick in the last draft is one of the Sixers’ most valuable employees. And this is just odd enough an NBA season, and the Sixers are just different enough as a matchup puzzle, that to willingly enter the playoffs without such a gifted athlete would have been a risk.
“You’re familiar with two of the guys that we just brought in fairly recently,” said Bryan Colangelo, the Sixers’ basketball-operations president and general manager. “People would say, ‘How can you bring in Marco Belinelli and Ersan Ilyasova this late in the season? This team is playing well. It had a good thing going.’ But we are growing and evolving. You never say enough is enough. And Markelle Fultz has the kind of talent that we want to add to this team if we can. It’s no different than adding Marco and Ersan this late in the season.
“We’re looking to get better all the time.”
So there it was, snagged in a typically multi-layered Colangelo press briefing, the answer to the Sixers’ most enduring recent mystery. For weeks, they deliberately had Fultz taking shooting drills, later supplementing them with conditioning exercises, in full view of the press before doors opened on game nights. And Fultz, who earlier in the season was exhibiting cringe-worthy form, obviously had returned to a reasonable shooting release. While the organization’s sports-science brainiacs may have offered more studied reasons why Fultz had resumed shooting properly, by then it was not necessary. He was ready to play. It was obvious. Yet time was running low.
Brown had long been fighting off the urge to shout down the topic whenever it was forwarded by the media, but by the weekend he was as clear as he’d been all season, saying that it was up to Fultz to declare his intention to play. He also said it was nearing the point where a decision had to be made, one way or the other. Since Brown had insisted that winning a playoff spot would not trigger a Fultz return, that was not the turning point. But Colangelo let it out Monday that 10 games, and about 30 days, was about the minimum amount of run-up time for Fultz to prepare for a postseason.
So 10 games it was. “For the most part it is arguably more familiar to add Markelle to the mix than it was to add Marco or Ersan in that situation,” Colangelo said. “But if we can get better, we’re looking to get better. And with 10 games left in the season there is ample time to determine whether or not he is going to be a contributor in those playoff situations.”
Brown, not Colangelo, ultimately will decide whether Fultz can help on game nights. He planned Monday to play the rookie about 14 minutes, backing up Ben Simmons at the point. The Sixers would not have done that if he were not physically fit, and recent whispers leaking from Camden have been that Fultz has excelled in workouts, both unofficial and formal.
They did not activate Fultz Monday so that he could be a late-season novelty.
“I’ve been giving him the ball,” Brown said. “He’s had the ball. He’s getting up and down the floor. He’s elite in an open court. We’re always challenging him defensively. I think it will be easier for him to impact a game with the ball in the open court.
“It’s going to be tough territory chasing those guards around, and NBA movement, speed, and sets. That’s going to be a foreign experience for him. We have 10 games before the playoffs and I’ve said for a long time that there is a risk-reward. I’m going to lean on reward.
“Most importantly for his sake, he’s put in a lot of work. I’m thrilled to be able to offer him to come join his teammates at this exciting time of the year.”
The Sixers are a playoff team. They expect to be a playoff team for more than one round, and maybe for more than two. It’s why they bounced the distraction that was Jahlil Okafor, even if he was a No. 3 overall draft pick. It’s why they hired Belinelli and Ilyasova. And it’s why, even with only 10 games left, they were willing to find out if Fultz can be helpful.
They have more to do, as their head coach said. They need all the help possible to get that done.
Contact Jack McCaffery @jmccaffery @21stcenturymedia.com; follow him on Twitter @JackMcCaffery