Markelle Fultz Making 'Significant Progress' in Recovery from Shoulder Injury

Because of thoracic outlet syndrome, point guard Markelle Fultz hasn't played a game since the Orlando Magic acquired him from the Philadelphia 76ers in February. But Magic President of Basketball Operations Jeff Weltman said the No. 1 pick of the 2017 NBA draft is making "significant progress," per Josh Robbins of The Athletic:

"Markelle is doing very well. He's in Los Angeles continuing his rehab. We have sent one of our performance staff to be out with him to try to understand what he's going through from the more scientific perspective, and I have been out there to spend some time with him and watched him work out. It's just a matter of understanding where he is and supporting him. But I can tell you confidently that he's making significant progress and he's feeling like he's in a very good place."

The early portion of Fultz's career hasn't been promising.

After Philadelphia selected him out of Washington, he played a mere 14 games and attempted just one three-pointer during his rookie season as he dealt with shoulder issues. He's played in only 19 games this year and is 4-of-14 from deep while averaging 8.2 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.1 assists.

ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski wrote in November when the guard was shut down that he "has lost the ability to carry out and follow through on long jump shots, and there has been internal and external debate about how much of this perplexing circumstance is physical versus mental."

However, Fultz explained things during his introductory press conference with the Magic.

"It was hard to explain to people," Fultz said. "But it's almost like hard to lift up your arms. You lose feeling in your fingers. It's not really—you can't tell when it's going to happen. It's not like you do the same motion every time. But it's just you get tingling in your fingers, numbness, stuff like that."

While he hasn't returned to the floor since the trade—which sent Jonathon Simmons, an Oklahoma City Thunder first-round pick and a Cleveland Cavaliers second-round pick to the 76ers—he is only 20 years old.

Orlando (30-36) is just one game out of the No. 8 seed in the East, and the Magic have plenty of young talent in place for the future with Aaron Gordon, Mohamed Bamba and Jonathan Isaac. Ideally, Fultz can return to health and develop alongside them.