The 76ers and general manager Bryan Colangelo have some relatively positive news concerning rookie Markelle Fultz and his troublesome shoulder issues.
Colangelo met with reporters on Thursday and was excited to announce the progress Fultz has seen during his recovery period.
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“Surface level, I would say that he’s progressing well,” Colangelo said Thursday night. “He continues to focus on the PT and strength and conditioning aspect of the return. The good news is the soreness is completely gone and the muscle imbalance is gone.”
The number one overall pick in last year’s draft hadn’t played since late October when it was discovered that Fultz was having some issues with his shoulder. It was then the Sixers announced he would be out indefinitely with “soreness and scapular muscle imbalance in his right shoulder.”
It is encouraging to hear something positive as it relates to the University of Washington product after weeks of complex stories and theories as to what was wrong with his shoulder.
The team went on to release an update on Saturday morning stating that Fultz will still miss another three weeks, at least.
Sixers update on Markelle Fultz: pic.twitter.com/XmShdiAn2w
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The most apparent sign that things weren’t quite right came when Fultz was forced to shoot free throws. He adopted a distinctly uncomfortable looking shooting form, and it threw more than few people for a loop.
A formidable shooter in college – 41% from 3 in his lone year at Washington — Fultz’s struggles as a shooter in the NBA came as a surprise. The team has shifted focus to improving Fultz’s health; with time his shot should return.
Philadelphia can afford to show some patience when the team is enjoying a top-eight seed in the Eastern Conference. It doesn’t to have Joel Embiid, and current Rookie of the Year favorite Ben Simmons, leading the way, either.
“Now it’s about retraining those muscles,” Colangelo said. “It’s also about getting in basketball condition and reworking a lot of those mechanisms, muscular and otherwise. So it’s encouraging to see what we’ve seen. There still is no timeline on his return. But we anticipate that the end is near and he is doing really well.”
