Regardless of being nicely throughout the Philadelphia 76ers’ rearview mirror, former primary total choose Markelle Fultz nonetheless looms massive on their franchise. However, he presently finds himself out of the NBA, with him presently unsigned coming into the 2025-26 season.
That was after Fultz was infamously taken first total in 2017 after the Sixers selected to commerce as much as primary. That proved to be a colossal mistake, with the Boston Celtics utilizing the third total choose to draft Jayson Tatum.
Tatum and the Celtics have dominated the East in recent times, whereas the Sixers have had nice groups however not fairly sufficient to make a deep playoff run. Whereas the Sixers might have definitely used the participant that Fultz projected to be, they managed to make the very best out of a weird state of affairs.
They traded him to the Orlando Magic and used the choose they obtained in return for him to finally choose star Tyrese Maxey.
The Philadelphia 76ers have moved on from Markelle Fultz
In some ways, Maxey was the participant that many thought Fultz would turn out to be. Go determine. Nonetheless, with a number of excessive lottery picks, together with Jahlil Okafor, Nerlens Noel, Ben Simmons, and Fultz, failing to pan out, the Sixers’ as soon as seemingly good younger core by no means actually materialized.
In fact, they struck gold with Joel Embiid, though that originally appeared like a catastrophe and remains to be touch-and-go given his harm points. They’ve completed nicely to construct an excellent group round him, though they could by no means attain their full potential attributable to these aforementioned accidents.
Even so, they’ve completed higher with out Fultz than he has completed with out the Sixers. Fultz had a number of good seasons with the Magic, however was by no means the star that many anticipated he’d be, and when his contract was up, he did not have any affords till the Sacramento Kings swooped in late final summer time.
Markelle Fultz could also be out of the NBA for good
One yr later, and Fultz is in the identical spot, ready for his cellphone to ring, hoping to renew his NBA profession. Paradoxically, so is Simmons.
It might be a miserable finish to 2 gamers’ careers that when appeared so promising. Had even certainly one of them had a protracted and robust profession with the Sixers, the group might need gained a championship by now. As an alternative, each flamed out, and Philly was pressured to pivot and did so comparatively nicely.
The Sixers turning Fultz into Maxey and Simmons into James Harden underscores that they’ve top-of-the-line entrance places of work within the NBA. However, their future stays tied to Embiid, the final remnant of the Course of 76ers.
