Before Tuesday's game against the Toronto Raptors, Philadelphia 76ers coach Brett Brown was asked if Markelle Fultz was going to return to Brown's rotation sometime this season.
"Right now I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised with how he arrives back with us, more than assume he's going to be there," Brown said.
What Brown couldn't say, though, was what everyone in the room already knew: Fultz's time in Philadelphia was already all but over. The 76ers' timeline no longer allowed for Fultz to work himself back into anything even remotely resembling the form that made him the No.