Philadelphia 76ers: Markelle Fultz is now untouchable

Once considered one of the team’s biggest trade chips, Philadelphia 76ers combo guard Markelle Fultz is now reportedly untouchable.

Boy, what a difference a month can make in the life of an NBA player.

After being heavily featured in a number of pre-draft trade scenarios, it now appears as though Philadelphia 76ers combo guard Markelle Fultz is untouchable.

While this may come as no surprise to many Sixers fans, as who would want to trade for a player who seemingly forgot how to shoot for half of the season, but what if I were to tell you that it was the 76ers who don’t want to trade Fultz, not the other way around?

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Surprising, right?

Well, according to Michelle Beadle on ESPN’s Get Up!, the 76ers have told the San Antonio Spurs that Markelle Fultz will not be included in any of their trade scenarios to bring Kawhi Leonard to Philly, essentially disclosing that the 20-year-old guard is going to be heavily featured in their plans moving forward.

Wow, that’s a pretty big 180 from what many fans were expecting to hear

When news broke that some of the Sixers’ brass heavily encouraged Bryan Colangelo to pass on Fultz before the 2017 NBA Draft following a disastrous work out with the team, many assumed that the decision to trade up to acquire the combo guard was the move of the previous administration.

Factor in the fact that the team added not one, but two college combo guards to their roster in the 2018 NBA Draft and it was fair to wonder if Fultz was even in interim GM Brett Brown‘s plans moving forward at all.

Those questions have now essentially been laid to rest.

Even though Fultz won’t take part in either of the team’s two summer league appearances, a decision that has apparently been sanctioned by the squad, Philly obviously has huge plans for their second year combo guard and hope that he can one day ascend up the depth chart and cement himself in the team starting 5 as a do-it-all combo guard.

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While only time will tell if he can actually put it all together and develop into the kind of player worthy of being the first overall pick in an NBA Draft, it looks like Markelle Fultz will attempt to do so as a member of the Philadelphia 76ers for the foreseeable future.