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
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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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