Markelle Fultz, the first overall pick in this year’s NBA Draft, has brought enthusiasm to Philadelphia, a city that has already been told to trust the process. The Washington product now joins a Sixers team that enters 2017/18 with a hopefully healthy duo of Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid alongside veteran acquisition J.J. Redick ready to compete.
In Fultz’s mind, Philadelphia will not just be a fun team, it will be a competitive one, as the first overall pick said to CSNPhilly from Sixers Day Camp at Valley Forge Military Academy.
“We’re going to be in the playoffs this year, and I think everybody is willing to put forth their best effort and listen to the coaches and listen to the bench. We’ve got to just do whatever it takes to get there,” Fultz said. “That’s practicing even harder, that’s doing extra work in the gym by ourselves, I mean, we’re going to do whatever it takes.”
Fultz, 19, also addressed several other topics, including his rehab from an ankle injury he suffered at the onset of the Las Vegas Summer League; LeBron James possibly joining the Sixers next season in free agency; and his relationship with fellow rookie and top two draft pick, Lonzo Ball.
Below are additional notes around the Atlantic Division:
- A year after Trail Blazers matched the Nets‘ offer sheet for then-restricted free agent Allen Crabbe, the guard is now a part of the Brooklyn roster, Ethan Sears of the New York Post writes. Now, in an offseason where the Nets have pulled off calculated trades, Crabbe joins the team a year later and he expressed confidence in his new team at an introductory presser Thursday.
- Raptors president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri spoke to Michael Lee of The Vertical to cover this year’s offseason for the team. Ujiri, who was mentioned as a possible GM candidate for the Knicks, proclaimed his team’s focus is to beat LeBron James and he discussed new Cavaliers GM Koby Altman‘s tough predicament.
Sixers will win it all 2020.
Ujiri is the president not the GM.
Trust the Process
Fultz, Reddick, Simmons, Saric, Embiid, and even Okafor, Amir Johnson, Covington, McConnell, Stauskas, Luwawu, and Henderson all put together plus some of their other talented players to help round out the roster, that I’m certainly forgetting lol, but they all combine to make an intriguing and very talented squad…
I can’t wait to see this team in action, yet I’m curious as to how their starting 5 line-up is going to pan out..Do they automatically go with Fultz, Reddick, Simmons, a stretch 4, and Embiid, with a combination of some talented shooters and athletic defenders coming off the bench…?? What do you guys think there starting five and rotation looks like at the beginning of the season??
Replace Henderson with Anderson/Bayless. He is a FA and out for the season
Also throwing in Korkmaz coming over this team will have some growing pains but just oozes potential