While Leonard Fournette was throttling the Pittsburgh Steelers on national television, Markelle Fultz was back at it in Camden, throwing up a variety of end-of-practice shots at 75% effort.

When we walked into the gym on Sunday afternoon, he was doing 1v1 drills with Justin Anderson and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot under the watchful eye of Brett Brown.

That included some drives to the rim, some mid-range stuff, free-throws, and even some three-pointers as well, which you can see in the clips below:

You probably notice that his mechanics look.. different in some of those clips. He looked smooth while moving freely and pulling up to shoot, but the three-pointers he took seemed static and jerky. There were some horrible clunkers from distance but a few sweet strokes from closer range.

Again, I don’t put a ton of stock into anything that happens during the final 15 minutes of practice. I actually thought Fultz looked a little tired today, and practice seemed like it was a little more demanding and high-tempo, just based on all of the shouting we could hear through the media room wall. They began at 11 a.m. and didn’t finish up until a little after 1 p.m., I believe.

Point being, the players are winding down after team activities and certainly not going full-bore as things are wrapping up. Theoretically, that shouldn’t have anything to do with his mechanics, but he doesn’t seem to be 100% dialed-in at the end of the session, which is to be expected.

Brown answered a series of questions about Fultz after the session:

You worked with Markelle at the end of practice, what did you see from him today? (Crossing Broad)

Brown: Just progression. I feel like there’s progress. For me, there’s no better way to assess somebody than playing one-on-one. We had a great practice today as a team and you throw him in that environment, but to put anybody on an island, and they have to figure out stuff all by themselves, is a great learning environment for a coach. Watching him get some shots up, letting him compete, trying to stay down and guard – I thought there was progress today.

Where would you assess where his shot is right now, in comparison to where it was before the shoulder injury? (Jess Camerato / NBCSP)

Brown: How would I assess where his shot is currently at? It’s not where it used to be. His free-throw, I think, is. But some of the longer shots and rise-ups are not. And that’s just part of him getting through this sort of a progressive adjustment and trying to figure out the injury going forward.

How is his shoulder? Is the injury okay at this point? (Marc Narducci / Inquirer)

Brown: I don’t know if we could say it’s 100%. The doctors could say that better than me, but it certainly is getting better, to where they’ve allowed him to practice and shoot threes and pretty much do everything that the team does. I believe there is still discomfort but I don’t know the percentage of the recovery on his shoulder.

Does he need to be 100% to return to game action? Is that the stated goal? (Marshall Harris / NBCSP)

Brown: I think what he needs to be is able to shoot a basketball. I don’t know what percent we’re going to apply to that comment. But he needs to feel like he can go out and shoot a basketball. I think to just render it that the free-throw is pretty good – and it is – and only go that far without talking about some of the other pieces, is not what we’re looking at, and I know he isn’t looking at that.

When you mentioned the discomfort, I just wasn’t sure if that discomfort had to be completely gone before he returns. (Harris)

Brown: I think there is still some (discomfort) from time to time. He would be able to answer that better but it’s my understanding that there is still some discomfort from time to time. I think that’s part of recognizing, to Jessica’s question, that there’s some sort of erratic shooting and it’s not where it used to be, yet.

And I hope everybody writes that: “yet.”

Is there a range where he has to be comfortable shooting in the paint, or 15 feet, or three-point, where it’s realistic for him to playing in an NBA game? (Derek Bodner / The Athletic)

Brown: We haven’t really set that type of criteria. I think so much of it is passing an eye test for me, instead of a distance. You (saw) some of the things going on over there and sometimes it looked fluid and sometimes it didn’t. I would assume, like me, you saw him shoot some free throws and it looked pretty good, rise up, rise up rise up, you know, he loads it from his left hip. But some of the other stuff you can tell there’s work to be done. I think it’s going to be more of an eye test and gut feel more than any kind of distance.

What are the discussions like with Markelle? How do you talk him through it now that he’s back with the team but not able to go? (Camerato)

Brown: Just that his health, his confidence, his whole re-loading to an NBA court, in my opinion, is going to be how well do you practice? And I’m going to coach the hell out of him. We’re going to jump him and scold him and teach him like he’s been with me forever. Then we’re going to do a bunch of development stuff, individual stuff. Then every practice we’re going to end with what I call Wimbledon – we’re going to have a one-on-one tournament, we’re walking down the month of January, we’re going to chart it and show it. That’s the stable he’ll be playing with. He’ll sit with me in an office in a moment and we’ll go through some of the elements we can show from a practice that we can’t show from a game. And I’m just gonna coach the heck out of him, with those types of formats and in those terms. My conversation with Markelle, to your question, is that; ‘this is your passport back on to an NBA court in my eyes.’

So there you have it. That’s your Markelle Fultz update for Sunday, January 14th, 2018.