November 12, 2018
Every Sixers fan is rooting for Markelle Fultz to blossom into the type of basketball player his draft position — and heavy cost — led us to believe he'd eventually become in Philadelphia.
Fifteen games into the 2018-19 season, he's really struggling in certain areas. Like all of them, for certain.
The real problem, as we all know by now, is the jumper. His unwillingness to take open shots renders him dead weight at times on the offensive end of the floor. The 60 percent free throw percentage, an improvement on his limited attempts last year, has been a secondary concern.
Until Monday night in Miami, when this happened.
This is worse than we have ever seen Fultz's free throw form look. pic.twitter.com/FhCYpNpd5b
— Kyle Neubeck (@KyleNeubeck) November 13, 2018
A free throw pump fake? That's like when you don't release the shoot button on a video game, just to see what it looks like. Twitter was pretty merciless about this.
Fultz's free-throw form over the past few games is very, very concerning. It's almost a complete reversion to last year at this time.
— Derek Bodner (@DerekBodnerNBA) November 13, 2018
Tweet from Woj in three weeks:
— shamus (@shamus_clancy) November 13, 2018
“Hearing from a team source that Jimmy Butler forced Markelle Fultz to stand in a trash can for the entirety of #Sixers practice this afternoon.”
Fultz is double clutching free throws again.
— Rich Hofmann (@rich_hofmann) November 13, 2018
Markelle Fultz’s form is quickly becoming the Charles Barkley golf swing of basketball my lord pic.twitter.com/zBVmeNMe8L
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) November 13, 2018
oh my god what was that from Fultz.
— Jack Fritz (@JackFritzWIP) November 13, 2018
Fultz is gonna get called for so many balks
— Franzke & LA (@FranzkeLA) November 13, 2018
Markelle Fultz is a living, breathing 2K glitch. It’s tough to watch. pic.twitter.com/wMUXZBPQR2
— Andrew Joseph (@AndyJ0seph) November 13, 2018
Someone needs to slip Fultz some acid and give him the week off.
— Miles de Stijl (@milesdestijl) November 13, 2018
imagine going into a coma directly after fultz was drafted and waking up right now and going onto twitter
— Troel Embiid (@shakyhandsmay) November 13, 2018
Making matters worse here is a report that Markelle Fultz has stopped working with trainer Drew Hanlen, who spent the whole summer helping him reconstruct his shot. This comes after last week's Twitter miscue led to speculation that Fultz was playing injured.
Markelle Fultz and Drew Hanlen are no longer working together or on speaking terms, according to league sources. No word on why the two parted ways, but their relationship deteriorated about three weeks ago. Prior to this falling out, Fultz spent the summer training with Hanlen.
— Alex Kennedy (@AlexKennedyNBA) November 13, 2018
This has to be the worse-before-it-gets-better part of Fultz's season, right? Out there somewhere, a rogue Monstar is lighting it up with the skills that once belonged to Markelle Fultz. This is the plot of "Space Jam 2."
