Philadelphia 76ers Rookie Guard Markelle Fultz Out With Shoulder Injury, Will Be Reevaluated in Three Weeks
Last week, the Philadelphia 76ers finally made the decision to shut down rookie guard Markelle Fultz for at least three games due to a lingering shoulder injury. But two games later, the team realized that the injury could be more serious than initially thought and he's now going to be out for an extended period of time.
The Sixers have announced that there is no structural damage, but Fultz is going to be out indefinitely while he continues to undergo physiotherapy treatment to deal with the discomfort and scapular muscle imbalance in his right shoulder. The rookie guard will be reevaluated in three weeks.
Fultz's shoulder has been bothering him since the preseason and it has affected his shooting motion. The first overall pick in this year's draft is only averaging 6.0 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists in a little under 19 minutes per game. The rookie has been shooting a measly 33.3 percent from the field and 50 percent from the free throw line. He has yet to attempt a three-point shot.
The former University of Washington standout was actually a good shooter in college. Fultz's was never a good free throw shooter (64.9 percent), but he actually averaged 47.6 percent from the field and 41.3 from beyond the arc during his stint with the Washington Huskies.
The Sixers should have known that something was horribly wrong when Fultz started to change his shooting form, and many observers have already criticized the team for the way they handled the injury.
"Someday I would like to learn exactly what prevented the Sixers from pulling Fultz ages ago, when a dramatic change in his free-throw shooting form signaled the first signs of trouble. Reports since then seemed to indicate a certain amount of skepticism over whether Fultz in fact had any injury at all, but even if the shoulder was perfectly healthy, sending him out to play with a mangled, unrecognizable jumper and a massive confidence deficit cannot have been good for his long-term development," Deadspin's Chris Thompson said in his column.
