Is Markelle Fultz Evan Turner?
Spike mentioned on the podcast a month or two ago that watching Markelle Fultz reminded him of watching Evan Turner. Not so much that their games were particularly similar, but that he was convincing himself that he was watching something more impressive than he actually was.
Andrew Unterberger flatly rejected this hypothesis... until now.
"That’s why I really, really didn’t want to hear it when Spike first compared Markelle Fultz to Turner on the pod a couple weeks ago. Even though the Sixers’ situation is so different in 2018, we need Fultz now as badly as we needed Turner back in ‘10 -- we just need him to be the final foundational piece rather than the first one -- and as with Turner, if Fultz doesn’t turn out to be the guy, we might not get another chance to find the actual guy. If Markelle turned out to be ET 2.0, that would be devastating -- not just because it’d potentially seal the ceiling of this Sixers core as not-quite-title-competitive, but because it’d mean years of heartbreak in the meantime, of straining to believe he could be something more, even as we knew it in our gut that he really was who he really was.
Now, I’m not saying at this point that Markelle Fultz is definitely Evan Turner. I’m not saying he’s definitely anything this early in his career. He very well might not be Evan Turner. All I’m saying is that he’s not definitely not Evan Turner, either. That might seem a thuddingly obvious observation, but at this point in Joel Embiid’s career, he was definitely not Evan Turner. Ben Simmons was definitely not Evan Turner. Even Nerlens Noel was definitely not Evan Turner. Markelle? Jury’s still out.
But while said jury prepares to deliberate -- and they might be sequestered on this thing for a damn long time, so hope their hotel gets HBO -- let’s present the cases for Markelle Fultz being and not being Evan Turner, as they stand 11 games into his quasi-sophomore year. Still love you always forever, Evan."
AU goes on to give all of the reasons why Fultz might be Evan Turner, and all of the reasons why he might not be Evan Turner. Check out the entire thing here.
WIN A SIGNED DARIO POSTER OR SIGNED TJ BALL
On Saturday, after the Providence AC Bark In The Park, Spike will host a Colony Meadery afterparty at the Sterling Pig in Media, from 1:30 until 3:30. You don't need to participate in Bark In The Park to come! Come out, drink some mead (or other stuff), eat some food, and enter a raffle for a signed by Dario Live Ricky III poster or ball signed by TJ McConnell. Also there's still time to donate.
It's On Simmons Now
Spike wrote that Joel Embiid has proven he's the team's alpha and best player, and it's up to Ben Simmons to fit around him if he wants to be truly great.
"Embiid is a real-life MVP candidate. He is not only the best player on the Sixers, he’s one of the ten best players in the NBA, and for the sake of himself and the team, Simmons needs to make fitting around Embiid his number one priority.
Currently, Embiid and Simmons are two wildly talented players who play on the same team but don’t particularly complement one another. At their most effective, they both occupy the same space on the floor, meaning it’s more of a “my turn, your turn” scenario than anything else.
This isn’t about whether Embiid and Simmons are friends. I don’t care if they’re friends. Plenty of NBA players have been successful together without being friends. It isn’t an issue that’s solved with an Instagram post to assure everyone they love each other.
It’s about making each other better on the court to become the best version of themselves, which isn’t the case as of yet."