2017 NBA Draft: How Markelle Fultz would impact every lottery team
By Max Holm
As the near-consensus No. 1 pick in the 2017 NBA Draft, Markelle Fultz would be a dream come true for every team drafting in the lottery.
Spring time welcomes one of the best periods of the NBA calendar year. The playoffs just kicked off the second round and we are roughly two weeks away from finding out the order for the 2017 NBA Draft. After a pretty weak showing from the 2016 class, GMs and coaches will be far more excited with this current bunch, especially Markelle Fultz.
For most of the college basketball season, the four main players in contention for the No. 1 pick in the draft were Fultz, Lonzo Ball, Josh Jackson and Jayson Tatum. By spring, it was Ball or Fultz for most experts. Fultz was dominant all year long, but after Ball failed to step up against Kentucky for the second time, Fultz’s superiority seemed cemented.
Fultz is the perfect lead guard prospect for the modern NBA: tall at 6-foot-4 with a near 6-foot-10 wingspan, a deadly scorer at all three levels, a master in the pick and roll at just 18 years of age, and a guy who can play on or off the ball, a la James Harden.
NBA Draft sites like Draft Express and Tankathon both have Fultz as the No. 1 pick, as did Chad Ford’s fourth mock draft. It’s likely going to be Fultz’s name we hear first on draft night. So on May 16, whatever team wins the lottery will likely be taking Fultz in a month’s time. So how would each NBA team in the lottery benefit from adding him? Let’s dive in.