Markelle Fultz is speeding the Magic up, and slowing himself down

Even though they'd selected him No. 1 overall less than 20 months earlier, it came as no surprise when the Philadelphia 76ers flipped Markelle Fultz to the Orlando Magic at last season's trade deadline in exchange for salary filler and a future draft pick.

It may be presumptive to say Fultz needed a change of scenery, or that he would never have reached his potential amid the wearying scrutiny in Philadelphia, but it was easy to see the upside of relocation. In Orlando, he'd be able to develop at his own pace, in a less invasive media market, for a team that had less urgency to win now and hadn't invested the league's most valuable piece of draft capital in him.

Even if Fultz never fully blossomed, Orlando could never saddle him with the kind of psychic baggage he'd been toting around in Philly. With the Magic, he wouldn't be the top pick whose jump shot fell apart under a shroud of mystery; he'd just be Markelle Fultz, a flawed but promising prospect with plenty of room for growth.

As it turns out, that guy is a pretty decent basketball player. Just ask Magic coach Steve Clifford, who, five games into this season, with his team's offense stuck in the mud, nudged Fultz into the starting lineup.

The experiment has gone much better than it did with Philadelphia, which tried to shoehorn Fultz into a starting role at the beginning of the 2018-19 campaign. Rather than forging him into the player the team needed him to be, the trial by fire only melted away his strengths and accentuated his shortcomings.

Part of the issue in Philly was the lineup and system around Fultz. He was given little space to attack, and he was often relegated to the dunker spot while playing alongside another non-shooting ball-handler in a pick-and-roll-averse offense. As a result, he looked lost. When the ball found him on the perimeter, he'd often overthink, hesitate, or put it on the floor without a plan.

The starting lineup in Orlando is structurally similar to the Philadelphia unit in which Fultz briefly replaced JJ Redick last year - big, athletic, and smothering defensively, but lacking the shooting to effectively space the floor in the half court. So, it was fair to wonder whether swapping out D.J. Augustin, arguably the team's best 3-point shooter, for a guy who'd made just seven threes in his entire career was the right approach.

But the scuffling Magic had little to lose, and Fultz - finally healthy after getting a diagnosis for his nagging shoulder issue and sitting out most of last season - has rewarded Clifford's faith. His drive-and-dish game, his speed, and his opportunism in the open floor have given Orlando's offense the kick in the pants it needed.

"He brings pace, and he gets the ball going to the basket and into the paint," Clifford told theScore of why he likes Fultz with the starters. "And he plays for his teammates. He's big, he's quick, he has great feel for the game. It's helped us already playing more inside out."

To Clifford's point, Fultz is driving the ball 9.3 times per game and attempting nearly half of his shots in the restricted area, where he's shooting 68% (95th percentile among NBA guards) thanks to a variety of crafty, ambidextrous finishes. He's seeing a significant uptick in his share of used possessions as a pick-and-roll ball-handler, and he's scoring at an above-average clip in those scenarios, according to NBA.com.

The Magic's offensive rating has gone from 95 before the lineup change to 108 after it, including 116.4 with Fultz on the court. For the season, Orlando's been 15 points per 100 possessions better when the young guard is in the game versus on the bench, and he's averaging 16.5 points (on 56.4% true shooting), five assists, and 2.5 steals per 36 minutes since becoming a starter.

"It does help, knowing coach believes in me," Fultz told the Score.

"I think it's more so just me being healthy," he added. "Taking the time this summer to get my body right. (Having) the opportunity to be on the court and play freely."

Fultz's most dramatic impact has come in the transition game, where the Magic are scoring 22.2 more points per 100 possessions when he's on the floor, according to Cleaning The Glass. Individually, he's been one of the most efficient transition players in all of basketball, scoring 1.44 points per possession on the break.

"Any time I get a chance, I want to push the pace," Fultz said. "Doesn't have to be me who's scoring. I'm just looking to get two defenders on me and get my teammates some easy shots. That's the mindset I've had ever since I was little."

At the other end, Fultz is a twitchy defender who's still learning how to navigate screens, but his length and activity make him a disruptive presence on the perimeter, and the scads of turnovers he creates help fuel his open-court offense. There's an arrhythmic unpredictability to his game; a kind of controlled chaos that enlivens an otherwise staid, structured Magic system.

He iced a win over the Wizards last week with a pick-6 that stood out as the defining play in perhaps the defining performance of his NBA career to date. With a three-point lead and about 40 seconds remaining in a game during which Fultz had hit his first seven field goals (including two 3-pointers) on his way to a career-high 19 points, he sank into the lane from the weak side to thwart Thomas Bryant's rim run, briefly leaving Isaiah Thomas open on the wing. He then anticipated Bradley Beal's kickout pass to Thomas, leaped to deflect it, ran down the loose ball, took one dribble, absorbed a hit from Davis Bertans, and dunked. With that, the typically taciturn 21-year-old let out a primal scream.

By the way, that nifty one-handed gather - which Fultz deploys on all his fast-break dunks - does more than just look cool; it's a natural extension of his dribble that can mess with defenders' timing. He'll collect the ball before they expect him to, sometimes use his off-arm to create a bit more separation, and rise up for what looks like a scoop layup before getting above the rim with jarring velocity.

"It's unorthodox," Fultz said. "I feel like a lot of people don't know what I'm gonna do when I do that. It's something where instincts kick in. Just get the ball up quick. I've got other stuff, but that's (my) instinct."

While Fultz has sped Orlando up in the open floor, a completely different approach is needed against a set defense. And in half-court situations, it feels like he's slowed himself down.

This season, his decision-making and his ability to diagnose coverages have improved by leaps and bounds. He's less rushed and more patient. He's better at shifting gears, keeping his dribble alive, finding seams, and snaking his way to the basket, even as defenders sag off him and go under screens.

Fultz still doesn't quite know what to do when he's playing off the ball. He often stands around and drifts to the corner, and he's finished fewer than 10 possessions this season as a cutter. Still, he does enough as the ball-handler to justify his increased usage as an initiator.

Orlando kicks off a lot of sets with handoffs and pitch plays designed to get Fultz rolling downhill and into the teeth of the defense, and he's done a nice job of facilitating the early half-court offense. (He tends to become less involved as possessions develop, but that may need to change now that All-Star center and offensive hub Nikola Vucevic is slated to miss at least four weeks with an ankle sprain.)

Of course, it isn't optimal that defenders feel comfortable ducking under screens and ignoring him off the ball, and that's still the elephant in the room. For Fultz to ever be an above-average starting point guard, his jump shot will need to become at least somewhat reliable, never mind approaching the 41.3% 3-point mark he posted in college.

There are encouraging signs, even if the results haven't caught up to the process yet. Fultz's mechanics look more fluid than they have at any other point since he entered the league. His release remains slow and his form unconventional, but there's less of a hitch in his shot and he lets it fly with less hesitation. Yes, he's converted just 20% of 3-pointers this season, but he's attempted two of them per game, and being willing to take them is an important first step.

Fultz still occasionally psyches himself out and turns down open shots, which can stall the Magic's offense. In this case, it resulted in a shot-clock violation:

But Orlando knew patience was part of the bargain when it traded for Fultz, and when it picked up his fourth-year option (worth $12.3 million for 2020-21) before the start of this season. With his jumper essentially being rebuilt from the ground up, the fix was never going to happen overnight.

"I think it's pretty close," Fultz said. "It can get better, and it's getting better. Every day I'm working on it. But, you know, I've been feeling good, shooting shots when I'm open, shooting shots that I work on. It's only a matter of time before I get back to being the killer I know I am."

There's enough evidence to indicate Fultz's self-belief isn't totally unfounded. He's shooting 56.3% from inside the arc and 82.1% from the free-throw line. While some teams set screens for their point guards out near midcourt to free them for pull-up threes, the Magic often screen for Fultz well inside the arc to get him to spots where he's a legitimate threat. That he's shooting 46.2% from the mid-range this season means opponents actually have to pay him a measure of respect in that zone - the Wizards even blitzed him! - which unlocks his heady passing.

For now, even without a viable 3-point shot, Fultz brings enough to the table to be a positive contributor, particularly for a team that was starved for shot creation even before Vucevic went down.

When asked which parts of his game he feels best about, and which parts still need the most improvement, Fultz offered the same answer to both questions: "Everything."

Given the way his career began, and how far he still has to go, that sounds about right.

Joe Wolfond writes about basketball and tennis for theScore.