Sixers' Markelle Fultz should start season on bench | Marcus Hayes
The No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 draft would benefit by watching and learning.
FOR STARTERS, maybe Markelle Fultz shouldn't start.
Really; what's the rush? This is the fifth year of The Process. The three most significant pieces - Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons and Fultz - have played a total of 31 of 328 games since it began. Processors are nothing if not patient.
Just think about it. Simmons is a 6-10 power forward, but Brett Brown says he will convert him to point guard even though Simmons missed his entire rookie year with a broken foot. There will be growing pains.
It seems more logical to start Simmons alongside veteran Jerryd Bayless, who can play shooting guard and help handle the ball if necessary. It will be necessary.
Fultz can come off the bench and play alongside point guard T.J. McConnell. The introduction to the NBA is a lot gentler when you slide in at the wing.
What do they have to lose? Please don't say "games," especially if you're a Processor. The Sixers' record didn't matter for four seasons. It shouldn't matter now if the cornerstones have played less than 10 percent of the timeline. Wins will be coincidental for the foreseeable future.
The veteran-rookie tandems just make sense. Use them like a hockey coach uses defensive pairs. Yoke them together and let them grow together. It's best for the team.
Point guards are like quarterbacks. Their mistakes, which usually manifest themselves as turnovers, are magnified. It serves everyone to minimize those mistakes.
Young point guards often have a hard time getting things done. One guy has never played the position and the other guy won just nine games in college last season. That doesn't seem like the best plan to feed Joel Embiid and Dario Saric. If you play Simmons and Fultz together, they might turn the ball over during timeouts.
In a guard-driven league, recent top 10 picks have struggled to efficiently run teams. D'Angelo Russell, taken second overall in 2015, has a 1.53 assist-to-turnover ratio. Emmanuel Mudiay, taken seventh that year, is at 1.71. Dante Exum, taken fifth in 2014, is at 1.62. Elfrid Payton, taken 10th in 2014, is at 2.71. It's a hard job, even for the best of them.
Chris Paul, the league's best point guard for the past 12 seasons, has a 4.25 assist-to-turnover ratio in the last 10 seasons . . . but even CP3 was almost a full assist worse his first two seasons.
Fultz and Simmons are not Chris Paul.
Watching and learning never hurts. Embiid was injured his first two seasons, but he and Brown say Embiid's incredible debut this past season was immeasurably aided by watching and learning. Brown says the same has happened with Simmons. The best example, though, is freshly snubbed Rookie of the Year candidate no-brainer Dario Saric.
Given his vast international experience, Saric was a much more complete player at the beginning of last season than Fultz and Simmons are now. As such, Saric started the first 10 games of last season, but his struggles led the team to trade for veteran Ersan Ilyasova. Saric came off the bench for 45 of the next 46 games. The Sixers traded Ilyasova in February. By then, Saric had clearly become the best rookie in the league.
Why did Saric improve so much so fast? Partly because he played against backups, and he played fewer minutes. He was fresher and less challenged than he would have been had he been starting. That's never a bad thing for a 19-year-old kid. You think Fultz would've progressed faster facing Kyrie Irving . . . or Deron Williams?
It shouldn't be permanent. It shouldn't even be all season. Either McConnell, Bayless or both will be moved at the trade deadline. Neither has much future as a Sixer, but both have futures in the league. Besides, playing a little less early in your career and delaying an assignment to full-time point guard play can have wondrous long-term benefits.
Kobe didn't start his first two seasons. Magic didn't play point guard his first four seasons, and Magic had played twice as many seasons in college as Fultz and Simmons, both one-and-doners. Magic also led Michigan State to the 1979 NCAA title and was the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament. Both Simmons and Fultz watched their NCAA Tournaments on TV.
So, again: What's the rush? Don't delude yourself. This season is going to be about development, again. So will next season. Coming off the bench for the first 40 games of 2017 won't compromise Fultz's Hall of Fame chances.
It might even enhance them.
@inkstainedretch