Last updated: 9/30/2019
Last updated: 9/30/2019
Last updated: 9/30/2019
2025 Free Agents - Markelle Fultz
As the former #1 overall pick in 2017, Fultz had a really rough start to his career, and thus far hasn't been able to fully recover from that, although the '22-'23 season for the Magic was a big positive step in the right direction, as he was the starting point guard on an improving team. He moved to the bench in '23-'24 and his lack of offense limited his playoff viability, but overall he has shown he can still be productive. Over the course of his first five seasons, Fultz only once played in more than 20 games in a single season. He has struggled with health issues that have not only impacted his availability, but his jump shot became completely altered compared to college, and there were some mental aspects to his health as well. Hopefully those days are behind him, as he played 60 games in '22-'23, and the games he missed in '23-'24 were not due to anything too serious going forward. Offensively, Fultz lives off of getting in the lane and finishing at the rim. He has consistently finished well inside throughout his career, hitting 64% of his shots at the rim, which is slightly above-average for a guard. Fultz uses his quickness and change of pace as a ballhandler to by his defender and get in the lane. He has craft to finish with either hand, and the athleticism and body control to absorb contact and finish inside. He has the vision to hit his teammates with dump-off passes inside or kickouts outside when he collapses the defense. Although he has a solid midrange pullup when defenses sag way off, the outside jump shot is nonexistent at this point. He's a sub-30% 3-point shooter on fewer than two attempts per game, and frankly just isn't a threat from outside at all. It's hard to imagine an above-average lead guard in today's NBA not being a threat from outside. He takes some pullup midrange jumpers, and while he hasn't historically hit them at a good rate, he shot above-average in midrange field goal percentage for the first time in '22-'23 at 47%, according to Cleaning the Glass, but that might be an outlier as he was back down to 39% in '32-'4. He's also a sub-par free throw shooter at just over 73% for his career. Fultz provides some real value defensively, as he has good size and length for a point guard. He has the laterally quickness to stay in front of opponents, and has generally put in good effort on defense. He's a disruptive off-ball defender, jumping passing lanes and getting steals as a help defender. He has posted good steal and block rates throughout his career. Fultz needs to stay healthy in order to keep his career going. He has shown he can be a productive NBA player if he can stay healthy, and could be even more than that if the jump shot develops. However, it was discouraging that Fultz got essentially no interest as a free agent in 2024, and didn't sign with the Kings until later in the season, and barely played at all in '24-'25.
Summary
Fultz will be an unrestricted free agent with a $2.3 million cap hold and Non-Bird Rights. This means that the highest starting salary the Kings could offer him using the Non-Bird Exception is $3.9 million. This should be enough to retain Fultz, since he settled for the minimum to come to Sacramento. Alternatively, the Kings could use their Mid-Level Exception or Bi-Annual Exception (if available) to re-sign Fultz if he demands more than $3.9 million. Other teams will have multiple ways to sign Fultz as even teams without cap space could possibly use the Non-Taxpayer MLE, Room MLE, Taxpayer MLE, or Bi-Annual Exception to sign him. It's also likely that Fultz only gets minimum offers again, and may not even get fully-guaranteed offers.
Cap Considerations
Dennis Smith, Jr. (1 year minimum, non-guaranteed, 2023) Ben Simmons (1 year minimum, 2025) Kris Dunn (3-1 years, $16 million, 2024)