{"id":95290,"date":"2024-09-12T06:00:48","date_gmt":"2024-09-12T10:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=95290"},"modified":"2024-09-11T23:00:43","modified_gmt":"2024-09-12T03:00:43","slug":"former-1-overall-pick-remains-unsigned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/09\/12\/former-1-overall-pick-remains-unsigned\/","title":{"rendered":"As NBA Training Camp Approaches Former #1 Overall Pick Remains Unsigned"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since entering the league in 2017, Markelle Fultz<\/a> has had one of the strangest career trajectories of any first-overall pick in recent memory. After struggling with health\u2014along with a perplexing breakdown of shooting mechanics\u2014for two years in Philadelphia, he was shipped off to the Orlando Magic<\/a>. In Orlando, Fultz experienced a bit of a career renaissance and established himself as a solid NBA player. However, it wasn\u2019t long before the injury bug bit Fultz<\/a> once again. Over the course of five regular seasons with the Magic, Fultz managed just 201 games. Injury history aside, it is still a bit unusual to see Fultz currently without a job, given his age and pedigree as a former number-one pick.<\/span><\/p>\n

As NBA Training Camp Approaches Markelle Fultz Remains Unsigned<\/b><\/h2>\n

Markelle Fultz\u2019s Current Options<\/b><\/h3>\n

With training camp less than a month away, Fultz\u2019s options are quickly dwindling. As of this writing, there are only seven NBA teams who still have roster spots available. At this point, it is looking increasingly more likely that Fultz will have to accept a one-year vet-minimum deal. Of course, that all assumes Fultz still wants to extend his career in the NBA. It’s possible that the former number one overall pick could accept a lucrative offer from overseas\u2014one which offers him much more opportunity and stability. Although Fultz is still very young (26), the overseas route is a course we\u2019ve seen several notable NBA veterans take this offseason, including Cedi Osman<\/a>, Patrick Beverley<\/a>, and Darius Bazley<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

What Fultz Still Has to Offer<\/b><\/h3>\n

Fultz has never come close to achieving the stardom that is typically expected of most first-overall picks, but he has proven himself to be a useful\u2014albeit limited\u2014backup and role player. When healthy, Fultz has consistently shown an intriguing knack for playmaking\u2014with two career triple-doubles<\/a> to show for it. Additionally, Fultz has always shown a propensity for wreaking havoc on the defensive end, aided by his stout positional size. In the right setting, there is no doubt in my mind that Fultz could expertly lead any team\u2019s second. With a good bill of health, Fultz could even make an interesting case to be a dark horse Sixth Man of the Year<\/a> candidate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Last Word\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

All things considered, it makes a decent amount of sense for the Magic to move on from Markelle Fultz at this time. With a handful of younger, more heavily invested players already on their roster, Fultz was likely looking at a significantly reduced role going into the 2024-2025 season. Additionally, those younger, more invested players\u2014mainly Jalen Suggs<\/a> and Anthony Black<\/a>\u2014have skill sets that overlap a great deal with Fultz\u2019s.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0If Fultz is able to find a new home, look for the back end of his NBA career to look a lot like Ricky Rubio<\/a>\u2019s. While Fultz is not quite the same level passer or playmaker, he can have a similar impact. From 2019-2023, Rubio was a perfectly useful impact role player for teams like the Suns, Timberwolves, and Cavaliers. A healthy Markelle Fultz can do much of the same. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since entering the league in 2017, Markelle Fultz has had one of the strangest career trajectories of any first-overall pick in recent memory. After struggling with health\u2014along with a perplexing breakdown of shooting mechanics\u2014for two years in Philadelphia, he was shipped off to the Orlando Magic. In Orlando, Fultz experienced a bit of a career […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5268,"featured_media":95314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,1608,61,3,17],"tags":[668],"class_list":["post-95290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-basketball","category-international-basketball","category-news","category-magic","tag-markelle-fultz"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}