Former #1 pick in the 2017 NBA Draft Markelle Fultz signed a 10-Day contract with the Toronto Raptors yesterday after spending time with their G-League affiliate this season. The last time Fultz played in the NBA was with the Sacramento Kings in the 2024-25 season where he averaged 2.9 points in 21 games.
Although the plan in 2017 was always for the Celtics to draft Jayson Tatum, there was a short time where Fultz was thought of to be in Boston alongside the core group of Isaiah Thomas, Al Horford, potentially Gordon Hayward, Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart.
This took me back to when the Boston Celtics won the 2017 Draft Lottery and wondering what would have happened if they decided to draft Fultz first overall? What would this iteration of the Boston Celtics look like today? Would this decision have affected the moves made in that offseason? Finally, what does Jayson Tatum’s career look like?
How did the Boston Celtics end up with even a chance at the Number 1 overall pick at this time coming off of a 2016-17 season where they were first in the Eastern Conference Standings, Isaiah Thomas had a top-5 MVP finish, and made the Eastern Conference Finals where they lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers in five games?
This draft pick was traded to Boston by the Brooklyn Nets in the Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett trade. Brooklyn had a miserable season without both of those guys on the roster, finishing with a league worst record of 20-62. That trade really was the gift that kept on giving.
The Celtics pick was projected to have a 25% chance of finishing number one overall and it finished that way as well, with the Los Angeles Lakers finishing with the second pick and the Philadelphia 76ers finishing with the third pick. Boston now had the chance to pick the no doubt best player in college basketball, Markelle Fultz out of Washington.
Markelle Fultz was a star at Washington where he averaged 23.2 points per game and looked like the sure fire best player in college basketball. He was seen better than guys who played in March Madness that year like Lonzo Ball, Jayson Tatum, De’Aaron Fox, Josh Jackson, and Malik Monk.
According to an article written by [Chris Forsberg of ESPN](https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/19563599/markelle-fultz-meets-boston-celtics-undecided-working-other-teams), Fultz was excited to potentially join the Celtics saying, “It almost feels like I belong here,” while he looked at some of the pictures of past Boston legends outside of the locker room. He was really excited about the opportunity to be able to wear Ray Allen’s old N0. 20 and play alongside former Washington Huskies alum Isaiah Thomas.
When Danny Ainge was about the workout, he didn’t give much information saying, “He’s talented…I didn’t find anything today that I didn’t already know, which is the same case with almost every draft workout. ... He has a personality, has some charisma — he’s fun.”
Little did we know that Ainge had a master plan that would change the history of the Boston Celtics franchise forever.
Danny Ainge traded the first overall pick to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for the third overall pick in the 2017 draft plus another future first round pick. This gave the 76ers a chance to draft Fultz and pair him along with Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, but what was the Celtics plan?
Projections at the time had them taking Kansas forward Josh Jackson with the third pick, but Ainge had his heart set on a forward from Duke named Jayson Tatum. Boston would select Tatum with that pick and the rest was history.
It came out after the fact that the Celtics were always going to select Tatum whether it was with the first pick or not and that paid off in spades for Boston, winning countless awards and making deep playoff runs that eventually ended with a championship in 2024.
Fultz on the other hand did not work out with the 76ers. He was later diagnosed with Thoracic Outlet Syndrome on his shoulder, completely messing up his shooting mechanics. When the 76ers traded for Jimmy Butler the next season, it was over for Fultz’s time in Philadelphia, being traded to the Orlando Magic in 2019 after only 33 games with the team that drafted him. Fultz would play 5 seasons with the Magic but deal with some devastating injuries like a torn ACL and other knee and shoulder issues. He would play 21 games for the Kings last season but didn’t find a spot on an NBA roster until now.
I always wonder what would have happened if Markelle Fultz was drafted by the Celtics with the first overall pick. There would have obviously been a log jam at the point guard position with Isaiah Thomas, Marcus Smart, and Terry Rozier at those spots and if Fultz had the same injury issues he did with the 76ers, there’s a chance he could have been moved on from in a similar way.
However, this might have stopped Boston from trading away Thomas in exchange for Kyrie Irving. Would Ainge have made the deal if they had Fultz who could have been the point guard of the future?
What about Gordon Hayward? He was a free agent that was recruited heavily by the Celtics and Isaiah Thomas specifically. Would he have still signed here?
What about Jayson Tatum’s career? He might have ended up getting chosen by the 76ers or Phoenix Suns at picks 3 or 4 since it felt like the Lakers were always going to take Lonzo Ball. Would his career have been as successful on a worse team or would it have looked similar to the career of Josh Jackson with the Suns?
Thankfully, we don’t have to ever live out these scenarios in real time. It feels like the we ended up with the best possible timeline for the Celtics as a whole but it is a crazy domino effect that could have had some real serious implications on the future of the franchise for Boston.
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