a new NBA season is right around the

corner and marel folz is still a free

agent it was kind of starting to look

like marel folz might be able to find

his footing in Orlando but they're yet

to resign him and as we get closer and

closer to the start of a new NBA season

it's starting to make me wonder if any

team is going to take a chance on the

former number one overall pick so why is

marel fultz still unsigned this video is

brought to you by squares space but a

little bit more about them later I think

there's actually a lot of reasons why

teams are pretty reluctant to take a

swing on him even though he was the

former number one overall pick in 2017

we're going to get into how his career

has kind of progressed since he left

Philadelphia and went to Orlando as

always if you enjoy the video or find it

informative please consider leaving a

like and subscribing helps out the

channel a ton all that out of the way

let's get into it I want to preface this

video by saying I've really been rooting

for Marquel folz to be able to find a

place in this league even if he doesn't

live up to the star potential that he

had as the number one overall pick

ultimately I just want to see him be a

productive NBA player and have success

anything I say in this video is not

meant as a diss towards him I'm just

trying to take an objective look to see

if there's a place for him still in the

NBA or if the leagues kind of passed him

by at this point folz was an awesome

College Prospect and if you go back and

watch him in college it looks like a

completely different player I don't

think there were a ton of concerns about

whether or not marel folz was going to

be able to translate to the NBA it's

interesting because we associate marel

folz with not being able to shoot cuz

that's been the big struggle for him him

throughout his career but that just

wasn't the case in college now for those

who weren't familiar with what Marquel

was doing in college he was a 41% 3point

shooter on five attempts per game it's

like there wasn't enough sample size to

make an educated guess that okay he was

able to shoot in college he'll be able

to shoot in the NBA the loss of his jump

shot was originally thought to be the

result of a scapular muscle imbalance

the diagnosis for his injury was later

changed to thoracic outlet syndrome

which folz described in his own words

that it didn't allow ow me to go through

the certain paths that I needed to to

shoot the ball unsurprisingly it's

pretty tough to stick in the NBA

especially today if you're not able to

shoot Threes And even though there's

been flashes here and there throughout

the past 5 years or so that there might

be a shot still in there somewhere it's

just never been consistent enough or

utilized for an extended period of time

to where you could have any confidence

that you know maybe this will be

something he can do again now he did

start taking more threes with Orlando

but the shot never really started

falling again the best he got was during

the 2022 23 season where he shot 31% on

one and a half attempts per game which

obviously is an improvement over his

career 27.4% three-point efficiency but

it's just not good enough especially for

the type of player that Markel folz is

one of the biggest factors that's been

working against Marquel particularly

this offseason and specific to the magic

is that Orlando just doesn't have the

minutes to spare for a player like him

the majority of Orlando's core pieces

are under the age of 25 they're better

served at this point trying to develop

and integrate their own draft picks to

try and get as much out of them as they

can they don't really have the

developmental reps and minutes available

to be trying to pull off this

Reclamation project with folz it's just

not realistic now it is possible that if

you put him in a situation where a team

could devote more developmental time

towards him you might be able to get him

to a point where he more closely

resembles what people thought he was

going to become as a player but I'll be

completely honest even that seems

unlikely at this point he still gets

talked about as if he's a young player

but he's 26 years old and he's going on

his eighth season in the NBA so that's

not really accurate anymore for the

magic it gets even more difficult to

justify bringing Marquel Foltz back when

you look at their three-point shooting

struggles last year it paints a picture

that folz is probably the last guy that

you want on the floor Orlando had the

fourth lowest three-point attempt rate

in the NBA last season an issue that was

only worsened by the fact that they were

also the sixth lowest in three-point

field goal percentage it's pretty simple

when you look at it like this Orlando

wasn't taking enough threes and the

threes that they were taking they were

not making at even a League average

efficiency so the solution is pretty

simple get shooters that are willing to

take the shots and can make them at a

decent rate the key to building around

poo banero is surrounding him with

Shooters so that when teams double him

which happens pretty much all the time

whenever he has the ball and gets inside

the arc he's able to spray it out to

Shooters waiting for him on the

perimeter but it's not just about giving

poo passing options that can knock down

shots off of his gravity it's also about

opening things up for poo himself so

that he has an easier time of scoring he

was getting constantly double teamed

last year because opposing defenses knew

that okay we can just help off of these

guys who are non-shooters on the floor

and we really only have to worry about

Pao being the one that can make us pay

even if poo kicks it to one of them

either a they weren't going to take the

three in the first place or B they're

not going to make the three at a decent

enough of a clip that it's going to

actually hurt you this makes pao's life

significantly more difficult as a scorer

and it just makes the offense as a whole

struggle cuz you're not getting the most

out of the scoring gravity that poo has

so you have to build that team with

plenty of viable three-point Shooters

and unfortunately that's just not Markel

folz so this kind of leaves us with the

question of is there any team that would

sign him at this point and before we

answer that question I want to take just

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sponsoring today's video let's get back

to it one of the issues with talking

about a team potentially signing marel

folz is that the magic aren't unique in

the sense that they're built around Pao

in a way where you need to surround him

with Shooters that's how most teams are

built in the NBA today so when talking

about a team that would potentially be

interested in Marquel folz the big

hangup is the fact that he's not really

going to be able to be a floor spacer

and this is more of a problem for him

because he's a guard as opposed to a

wing or a big man I'm not sure there's

really a compelling case that you could

make right now for a team to be really

interested in signing him one of my

Mar's qualities that I became really

intrigued with during the 2022 23 season

was his mid-range shooting he shot 48%

on floater range shots and 44% on Long

mid-range shots and I thought all right

Marquel is not going to shoot threes

that might be okay if you can get him to

leverage that mid-range scoring and that

becomes a consistent part of his

offensive bag this will be how he can

leverage his scoring in other ways

outside of perimeter shooting but aside

from this 2022 23 season his mid-range

scoring has has only ever been below

League average both before and after it

kind of seems like this 2023 shooting

efficiency that he had in the mid-range

was more of a flash in the pan and not

necessarily a consistent thing that he

would be able to do he showed a lot of

stuff during the 2023 season as a driver

in Finisher that made you a little more

optimistic but again this is a situation

where he did it well in one season but

that hasn't carried over after that one

of the big problems is that during his

time in Orlando he shifted from more of

an on ball role to having to assimilate

into an offb role and that's really

difficult to do when one you're more of

an onb player as it is that's the player

that you've had to be for most of your

career and then two he doesn't really

shoot and it's tough to Be an Effective

off-ball player if you're not willing to

shoot this applies mostly to guards not

necessarily to power forwards and

centers but to Be an Effective off ball

player you need to be willing to shoot

it because for example with Pao if Pao

gets doubled and he kicks it to marel a

defense right now is going to see

Marquel Foltz get the ball and they're

not going to worry about him shooting a

three at all one because they know he's

probably not even going to take it in

the first place and two they know he's

probably not going to make it it's

difficult to imagine what Marquel could

do offensively as an off ball player

aside from attacking off the catch or

being a more active off ball cutter now

the one thing that I think teams can

still benefit from by signing marel is

his passing ability and I'm

intentionally saying passing ability

instead of playmaking ability and that's

because the scoring is in such a bad

place that I'm not sure that passing

really turns into playmaking ability

because that scoring isn't being

leveraged to manipulate defenses You

Need to Be an Effective scorer in order

to be a quality playmaker and there are

very few exceptions to that opposing

defenses know that Foltz isn't going to

be looking to score the basketball so

he's not really able to manipulate them

with the threat of his scoring so you

don't really get the full benefits of

his talent as a passer the biggest

problem with fols at this point is that

everything is becoming theoretical if he

can start hitting his threes if he can

stay healthy if he can play effectively

off ball if his mid-range shooting

becomes a weapon these are all really

big questions that are difficult to be

optimistic about when it comes to a

player that's fresh out of college and

new to the NBA if you're an NBA team

you're willing to take a chance and

gamble on these theoreticals but Marquel

fultz is 26 he's essentially in his

prime or entering his prime years and

there's not a ton evidence that he's

going to get much better than he is

right now and again none of this is

meant as a dig on Marquel folz I'm

extremely bummed that that injury in

Philly did as much damage as it did and

he hasn't been able to get his

confidence back from there but I think

we're past the point where teams are

going to look at him and see the oh he

was a former number one overall pick

back in 2017 what if we sign him on a

minimum and he ends up turning into the

star that we thought he was going to be

that might work like four or 5 years

after a player was drafted but we're

going on his eighth season I don't think

it's going to happen at this point now

does this mean that he should still be

unsigned does that mean that he

shouldn't get a contract at all no not

necessarily and he's probably better

than a lot of players that are sitting

on benches in the NBA right now I would

be surprised if a team didn't try to

sign him at some point but I don't think

there should be high expectations at

this point about the kind of

contributions you're going to get from

him it's also worth mentioning that he's

consistently struggled with injuries

throughout the last four or five years

he played 43 games last year year 60

games the year prior 18 games the year

before eight games the year before that

his healthiest season was back in 2020

but since then he hasn't really been

able to stay on the floor it's just

disappointing because folz could have

been so good the player that we see now

is just drastically different than the

player that we saw in college and

nothing would make me happier than for

folz to come back this season get on a

contract with a team and prove everybody

wrong but I think you can only hold your

breath for that for so long if you guys

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