Orlando Magic: 3 best things from season so far

1. The play of Markelle Fultz

Hands up if you thought the Orlando Magic would get 64 games (including 59 starts), 12.1 points, a team-leading 5.2 assists and a 47.3 percent field goal percentage out of Markelle Fultz this season? The hope was always that when the organization traded for him at the deadline, that he could one day show glimpses of the talent that made him a first overall pick.

After only 10 games in the pinstriped blue, we’d already seen that and then some. It is easy to forget among the poor losses and below-average play that the Orlando Magic have shown for periods of the season, but the play of Fultz has generally been excelled and far surpassed the hopes that fans had.

Is there still a weird hitch in his shot? Absolutely. Is the 25.4 percent he is shooting from deep unacceptable? Definitely. Has he gone through periods of time where he fades out of the game and doesn’t have much of an impact? You bet. Still, the fact Fultz is out on the court at all and shooting with some consistency is remarkable.

We forget just how broken a player he was 12 months ago, compared to what he looks like now. His ability to get to the basket is great. His midrange game is underrated, and although it is not the kind of shot selection that flies with a lot of people in the league today, Fultz is great at creating space in these areas to get a shot off.

His pace is what sets him apart though. When Fultz wants to play downhill and attack, he simply turns it on and leaves opponents in his wake. He is also capable of slowing it down as well, setting up others in ways that nobody else on the roster can. He is unselfish, perhaps to a fault at this point, but is always looking to assist his teammates.

Some of the turnovers are dumb, and the grind of the season definitely got to him there for a bit, but the fact we’re having this conversation at all and highlighting these things shows how far Fultz has come in a short amount of time. He’s played 97 games of professional basketball, and already he’s turned the weakest position on the Orlando Magic’s roster since Jameer Nelson left to one we should all be excited about. This is by far the best development of the year.