[EspressoParticipant]

 Since 2012, when I started watching basketball, Markelle is the best guard prospect ive ever seen and the only wing prospects who match his talent are Ben Simmons, Wiggins, Ingram, and Jabari

I mean, I’m not even getting into his strenghts or I’ll be here for a while.

Let’s focus on his weaknesses instead…

Weaknesses: NOTHING 

If anybody wants to mention his weaknesses below… go ahead.

#1 Prospect of the class, hands down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[OhCanada-Participant]

 How good do you see him being? Will he reach the tier 1 Russell Westbrook, James Harden level or do you see him peaking at a tier 2 Isaiah Thomas, Damian Lilliard or tier 3 Kyrie Irving, Kemba Walker level. 

[ChammesParticipant]

 How is kyrie in tier three, hes one of the brightest young players in the league

[OhCanada-Participant]

 His only weakness btw is inconsistent free throw shooting but if you think he is gonna struggle at the line thats really a reach. He should be fine from the free throw line despite shooting below 70%.

[EspressoParticipant]

Tier 1

[KingslayerParticipant]

Fultz is an incredible talent, but I’ll question his poor defensive IQ & effort until he shows otherwise.

Playing at UW allowed him to put his full skill-set on display, but it did very little to help him improve on that weakness. James Harden is a good comp for Fultz, on both ends of the floor.

[EspressoParticipant]

 While fulltz is no Leonard on D, he projects a much better defender than Harden. He moves better laterally and does a much better job than Harden contesting at the hoop because he is more explosive off 2 feet and has surprisingly good timing, specially on helpside blocks

[OhCanada-Participant]

 50% of NBA players of questionable defensive IQ. James Harden isnt that bad defensively as people say. Hes like any otger star player really he just doesnt try on defense. Difference is he doesnt pretend to try and it looks worse. He shuts people down on defense when he wants to. 

[kobyzParticipant]

 lol comparing Fultz upper body strength to that of Harden…

[llperez]

even as a ucla fan and lonzo ball supporter, i would give fultz the edge if im drafting #1. Fultz has all the offensive skill syou could want. Good shooter off the dribble and great at attacking basket and finding his way through tight spots. But there definitely was something off a little mentally from a competitor standpoint. A few too many times his team was down but within striking distance and he would just go through the motions passing to inferior teammates and then go away from the ball. He obviously got his shots up but he probably should have shot even more from the 2-3 games i watched of his.

[bdiddy5115Participant]

I think Fultz is suffering from lack of visibility (at UW) and being perched atop the draft board for so long. And the lack of team success is also hurting him (not unlike Ben Simmons last year). 

Fultz has very few glaring weaknesses. His FTs will be fine, and he’s clearly capable of being a plus defender. Sure, he displayed some bad habits on an awful defensive team, but I’m not too worried about him there (even if he’ll never be a shut-down guy). But people choose to put those negatives under a microscope and make them seem equally worrisome as real red-flags (like Ball’s lack of half-court offense/creating).

I think Dennis Smith Jr. is experiencing this phenomenon the worst, as his negative points (inconsistent effort/production etc) are being overblown to where many are throwing around words like "cancer" and "selfish", when in reality he was stuck on a dysfunctional NC State team that fired it’s coach mid-season. He was coming off an ACL surgery (which causes both physical and mental rust), and still performed very well statistically. His game is going to translate incredibly well, mark my words. 

Jaylen Brown is another example of this. Last year, people nitpicked his up-and-down Freshman season to no end, and almost forgot about his standout traits. He was clearly going to flourish more in the more open NBA game, and he clearly had the IQ to grow on both ends, but most wrote him off. 

 

 

 

 

[Anton123Participant]

What kind of way to present a prospect is that? That’s like me saying I’m currently dating the best girl I’ve ever dated out of the two girls that I’ve dated in my entire life. Basically says nothing about the girl.

[holefillers1Participant]

 Teams picking first are merely evaluating the top players. You could call it knit picking but you have to create a big board so scrutiny is a necessary part of the draft process. We having even talked about the combine yet when guys end up two in. shorter or don’t run jump well.

 When watching tape on Fultz there isn’t much to criticise.  He has tremendous athletic ability, a knack for scoring and the size to go with it.  I am more curious about a couple things I didn’t see. One was defense. It is obviously his first year playing against this level of talent but given his athletic ability you can’t compare his effort to a guy like Fox.  I am not suggesting drafting Fox over Fultz, just comparing aspects of there game to create my board.  The other question I have is his ability to score and create in the half court.  Washington is super uptempo…was anyway. I didn’t see a ton of work from the half court.  His ability to make decisions here will determine how good of a player he becomes.  

As of this moment without knowing what kind of half court player he will be and not knowing if his defense is up to NBA standards I would go with a bigger version of Damian Lillard as my comp.  If he becomes a two way player then that’s a entirely different animal…and I will be wrong.  But still a 6’4 Damian Lillard is a pretty good asset.

 

[EspressoParticipant]

I think he is and will be lethal in the halfcourt. He has so many tricks up his sleeve to create space it’s actually unbelievable. He is a complete nightmare on PNR because his handles and vision in combination with his stroke off the dribble, make him the perfect PNR weapon.

His biggest strenghts is pushing the break and running the PNR

 

[EspressoParticipant]

 Lillard is a one-motion shooter, which Imo is harder for them to shoot it from the mid range. The reason why curry is lethal on middies is because in addition to having a one-motion shot he also fades away like a goat.

Fulltz is a 2-motion like tmac, Jordan, kobe, CJ mccollum etc…. which helps him be a deadlier weapon in the halfcourt imo.

 

 

 

[markfitz14Participant]

Never heard that before. What do you mean? 

[EspressoParticipant]

 Players who elevate (jump really high), and let go of the ball at the top of their jump. They rely on soft touch to arc the ball inside the hoop. As opposed to 1 motion shooters, like curry, who baraly get off the ground and rely on their arms and flick of the wrist motion to arc the ball inside the hoop.

 

 

 

[EspressoParticipant]

 Lillard is a one-motion shooter, which Imo is harder for them to shoot it from the mid range. The reason why curry is lethal on middies is because in addition to having a one-motion shot he also fades away like a goat.

Fulltz is a 2-motion like tmac, Jordan, kobe, CJ mccollum etc…. which helps him be a deadlier weapon in the halfcourt imo.

 

 

 

[EspressoParticipant]

The reason why I think 2 motion Shooters are better in the halfcourt than 1 motion is because they Jump higher and are able to adjust their shot mid air.

 

 

 

 

[Robb_CParticipant]

 Fultz is not a PG, Hes a great offensive weapon but he will struggle with the physical nature of the league (barely finished the season in a soft pac-12) James Harden is built for contact, Fultz frame is not suitable for the abuse an 82 game season will take on his body attacking the rim consistently.. 

He dominates the ball, which creates a lot of standing around and waiting from his teammates.. He likes the ball in his hands to pick his spots, Hes very confident with the ball in his hands but uses his teammates as pressure release instead of creating for them..

He never seems interested in playing defense as much as he’s interested in rebounding to create for himself. 

Ive been critical of him as a PG all season because I don’t value his approach to the PG position, he reminds me a ton of Damian Lillard as his Ceiling and Monta Ellis as his floor

 

 

 

 

 

[Andv1 WaitingParticipant]

Futlz is a hard one to pick to be fair I think the next level will show us the answer to this debate as everyone has mentioned we will never know how much effort was truly put into this season by him. The knee soreness at the end is slightly worrying also..Unless that was just a ploy to sit him for other reasons we will never know like- not facing Ball and getting shown up/his team losing again or something dropping his draft stock…

However I could see the team he ends up on will answer this very quickly also: if the T-wolves get number 1 and he is their guy his defense will be shown up really quickly and he will or wouldn’t play due to it.

His offensive game if he goes to a team like the Magic,Knicks(triangle) or someone who plays/actually have a half court offense that will anwer this part for us..

But if I had to currently put a player comparrison it would be one of 3 players: Harden(ceiling) C.J Mcollum, Mike conoly/D angello R ( his floor if he has to play PG)  but it all depends on who drafts him and what his true mentality is and not the one that is put up infront of the media…

 

 

 

[Untouchable JParticipant]

 Am I the only one that notices he’s not a PG!??

This guy is an A1 scorer. Using him at point , and seein him dominate the ball and shots, isn’t gonna work even in this era of NBA

Once you project him as a 2 he compares more to a Bradley Beal

For all the Harden comparisons, do remember that Harden is a top notch passer and plays in a system that allows him to run point (and make turnovers). Fultz is not coming in with that type of leeway and it wouldn’t produce good results 

Finally, if he winds up at his most likely destination (Boston) he’ll definitely be running the 2

[Author]

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