Markelle Fultz played basketball in an NBA uniform for the first time since last November on Saturday, in a preseason game between his Orlando Magic and the San Antonio Spurs. Fultz was inefficient, as you’d expect from a guy who hasn’t played in so long and is on a new team, but he flashed some tools. Here’s a nice breakaway dunk he had in the third quarter, helped by some pesky, long-armed perimeter defense:
Fultz looked comfortable rising up for short jumpers and fades around the paint, but what’s notable from his box score is two attempts from beyond the arc, one in each half, neither of which fell. The second of these was even a step-back job, from above the break, to beat the third-quarter buzzer! Confidence! So how’s that shooting form coming along? For evidence, we turn to a YouTube video rudely titled “Markelle Fultz New Jumper Is Unstoppable”:
Don’t focus on the result! The thing to focus on is not whether the ball went in—it very much did not—but whether Fultz looked like one of those floppy car dealership inflatable dancer guys on his release. Which, ah, hmm. You know what, let’s go look at that dunk again.