Getty Images Markelle Fultz hearing from his coach, Brett Brown.
This past Monday night, Philadelphia 76ers’ head coach Brett Brown shook things up a bit against the Phoenix Suns. During the second half of the game, Brown decided to bring point guard T.J. McConnell off of the bench instead of former first-pick, Markelle Fultz. That resulted in Fultz having his season-low of seven minutes on the court this year.
Shortly after the game, a room full of reporters couldn’t wait to ask why Fultz was underutilized during the game. While Brown didn’t have much of an answer, it was apparent that the Sixers may feel more comfortable with McConnell coming off of the bench, instead of Fultz. Ironically enough after all of this went down, Fultz was ordered by his attorney’s to see another shoulder specialist, and will not practice or play in any games until he gets results back.
Here he goes again. It was strange two weeks ago when Fultz’s now former trainer claimed that he wasn’t healthy, but Fultz denied the statement and fired Drew Hanlen from being his trainer. Now, Fultz is, in fact claiming that he is injured, and the Sixers are completely unaware of what is going on exactly.
Elton Brand Speaks Out
Elton Brand said there has been no indication that there has been anything medically wrong with Markelle Fultz’ shoulder that would keep him off the court, either leading up to or during the season.
According to 76ers’ general manager Elton Brand, he is entirely unaware of anything being medically wrong with Markelle Fultz, despite everything that is going down. This has been an ongoing circle for about a year now, and it doesn’t seem to be ending anytime soon. We know for a fact that Fultz will miss some time moving forward, but will it be a similar case to last season where he loses a large chunk of his Sophomore season?
At this point, Fultz has just become more of a distraction for the team. As Brett Brown attempted to utilize Fultz in the starting lineup, it just wasn’t working out. For that, Fultz has been issued a role off of the bench, but he slowly started to see a decrease in his minutes as he wasn’t really producing much. Now, he won’t provide anything for at least the next week since Fultz is officially ruled out for a little while.