What can we expect from Markelle Fultz this season?

To say Markelle Fultz had one of the more confounding rookie seasons in NBA history would be a drastic understatement. All season long, the questions of what happened to his shot and why he appeared unable to fulfill his potential haunted the Philadelphia 76ers, with every new bit of footage of Fultz shooting around becoming the basketball world’s version of the Zapruder film as fans analyzed it endlessly, trying to diagnose the problem and track his progress simultaneously.

It all began when footage of Fultz shooting free throws awkwardly emerged last year. The fluid form that had served him so well during his time in college had vanished, replaced by something appearing instead to be entirely inorganic. After playing the first four games of the season, he was diagnosed with a shoulder injury which would keep him out indefinitely as he healed and reworked his shot. What was initially assumed to be an absence of a few weeks turned into his missing the next 68 games as the questions about his shot and his injury grew louder. Was it merely a shoulder issue to be remedied through physical therapy? Was it a case of the yips? Did the injury lead to an awkward shooting motion in order to compensate for pain in his upper body? How did the physical injury and presumed mental struggles overlap and separate? Even now, there remains no satisfying, conclusive answer to these questions.

Making the whole situation worse was the haul the Sixers gave up in order to draft him — their no. 3 pick in the 2017 draft along with what will presumably be Sacramento’s 2019 first round pick. Also, there was how well Jayson Tatum, the player the Celtics drafted with the Sixers’ pick, played all season long, looking like a future centerpiece for the franchise. Because of this, Fultz does not merely have the already lofty expectations of being a no. 1 pick looming over him, but as long as Tatum outplays him, the trade will also hang over his head, and over the franchise.

Thankfully for Fultz, the success of the Sixers last season has alleviated much of the pressure on him. Even with him providing minimal contributions last year, the Sixers still won 50 games as well as their first Playoff series since 2012. Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid already look like players they can build a championship contender around, making whatever progress Fultz shows in the coming years the proverbial cherry on top. Most no. 1 picks are expected to turn a team around, to be a franchise player, but the success of Simmons and Embiid removes those expectations from Fultz, allowing him to progress steadily without feeling like the team’s ability to move forward is contingent upon his own play.

And there is still reason for optimism! The Fultz we saw dominate at Washington has not disappeared and what he did there was not an illusion to be discounted. There were many concrete reasons he was the consensus no. 1 pick in the 2017 Draft and those still remain. Even in the 10 games he did play near the end of the season, he was a cumulative +63 in 177 minutes.

In those games, he displayed a slippery athleticism reminiscent of James Harden with his ability to stop and start immediately, changing directions effortlessly. Also, he averaged over 9 assists per 36 minutes in those final 10 games, confirming his abilities as a natural playmaker. Finally, he shot over 65 percent in the restricted area during his rookie year per Basketball-Reference, confirming his skill at both getting to, and converting at, the rim.

Of course, the question remains if he can make shots outside of the paint. He only took one 3-pointer in 14 games and only a third of his made baskets came from further than five feet away from the basket, per NBA.com. This would be worrisome for any point guard in the modern NBA, but it is particularly so for a team whose other primary playmaker is Ben Simmons, a player whose avoidance of jump shots is even more pronounced. However, at least Fultz, unlike Simmons, has shown that he can make 3s, making over 40 percent of them his lone season at Washington. The question just remains if he can make them again.

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It’s really impossible to say what to expect from Fultz. Entering the NBA, he appeared to have all the tools a potentially great point guard could possess — an accurate jump shot, superb court vision and the ability to get to the hoop at ease. Yet his rookie season was so strange, so unprecedented, that while it should be easy to predict a breakout year for Fultz, it remains harder than one would like. It was not merely that he played at the NBA level and proved unable to compete; rather, he seemed to forget how to play basketball altogether.

Of course if Fultz does fulfill his initial promise, if Sixers coach Brett Brown’s confidence that Fultz is “going to have a hell of a year next year” proves correct, then the 76ers will have perhaps the best young core in the NBA, potentially setting them up for several years of title contention.