Do you still get those twinges in the early evening on a game day where you think to yourself "Hmm, maybe I should check to see if there's any beat writer footage of Markelle Fultz taking jumpers at shootaround today" — before you remember he's really playing in the games proper now? It's a hard habit to break, especially for those of us who were fairly convinced we weren't gonna see him put ball in basket and have it actually count for two points again this season.
But indeed, Fultz is playing for real now — as he did in last night's 26-point home immolation of the Brooklyn Nets — and he's hitting jumpers with pretty impressive frequency. In his five games since returning from his whatever now, he's scored in double digits three times (exactly 10 points each time, but who's counting), including last night's 10 on 5 of 8 shooting, the first coming on a pull-up 18-footer from near the baseline that might've been his longest made jumper yet. It was enough to beg the question: Might we actually see Markelle take a three at some point this season?
At this point, it's pretty clear Fultz is finally, legitimately Back. He's averaging 7.4 points on 44 percent shooting in just 17 minutes a night since returning, he's racked up 22 assists to just three turnovers, he runs the second unit well and keeps the offense humming, and he's been pretty impressive on defense, even getting a couple Dwyane Wade-style mega blocks at the rim. He really only has one test remaining to prove himself all the way ready to resume his No. 1 overall pick hype: He's gotta take a damn triple.
Clearly, Fultz is still lacking confidence in his long-distance stroke, and Brett Brown has wisely alleviated a lot of the shooting pressure on his rookie point guard by refraining from pairing him with his other rookie point guard, Ben Simmons, so Fultz never has to be waiting behind the arc for the opportunity to convert a Simmons kick out. Asked pregame about playing his two No. 1 overall picks on the court together, Brown said he planned to do it some before season's end, but was valuing wins over experimentation at the moment — understandable for the last six games of a home-court playoff push — and would have to pick his spots with doing so.
With the Sixers' advantage over Brooklyn swelling into the 20s last night, Brown decided it was time to pull the trigger on a Simmons-Fultz backcourt. The experiment was short-lived, and largely inconclusive, though it did lead to one Fultz bucket. The Sixers are stomping teams to such an extent right now that they don't need to really force Fultz-Simmons reps, and the team is doing such a good job of bombing from deep around their two point guards — 9 of 21 last night — that they don't really need Fultz's additional shooting to help things for Simmons.
Still, at some point, dude is gonna have to shoot a three-pointer. If only for himself, if only to know that he can. He doesn't have to make it, as long as he's in the general vicinity, but the longer he goes without even attempting one, the more of a thing it's gonna become, and the harder it's gonna be to actually break that seal. Yeah, Simmons hasn't willingly taken one yet this year either, but shooting was never supposed to be his thing, and as the old NBA truism goes, every team can survive one point guard eccentric who doesn't want to shoot. The best version of this team is one with Fultz shooting (and ultimately, making) threes, and a necessary first step towards realizing that version begins with Fultz squaring up behind the arc and lifting.
There's not a lot left for the Sixers to accomplish this season. They're 47-30, winners of 11 straight, nine straight by double figures, the fifth seed at a minimum. Once they get through the important seeding showdown against the Cavs on Friday there's not a ton left for them to play for. But they can play for one — just one — attempted Markelle Fultz three-pointer. Hell, make it a free Frosty giveaway so the fans cheer no matter how it goes. Just get the damn thing up.