If we just ignored Markelle Fultz’s first two years in the league, just pretended they didn’t happen at all and agreed to say that this was his first season out of college as the number one overall pick, I would say that he’s been pretty decent for a rookie. Averaging 11 points on around 50 percent shooting, maybe his assist numbers aren’t quite there yet and his jumper looks iffy from deep, but all around, pretty good. Definitely not a bust.
I don’t think it’s entirely unreasonable to ignore those first two seasons. Everything was ALL messed up for his whole stint in Philadelphia. So messed up that it’s hard to draw any conclusions at all from anything that happened. We can acknowledge the reality of his jumper getting totally broken by some mysterious injury/meddling by people not qualified to meddle with NBA players’ shooting motions, but as for the stats he put up and the effect on winning that he had, forget about it.
Which means we can forget about that stat-padded triple-double he had as a rookie. I know Lakers fans were butthurt about that one (probably not so much now that Lonzo Ball is gone), so they’ll be happy to hear that it doesn’t count anymore.