It all makes you wonder about a few things.

FElton always played hard and with great passion on game day, but he was known for not practicing particularly well, and he relied on athleticism and effort to get his impressive production. He traditionally got off to a slow start in the early season and kept getting better and stronger over the course of the year. Then Dunleavy arrived and challenged him, and explained to him how he could improve and be a better player. He worked at Dunleavy’s offseason program in summer 05 and charged out of the gate and raised his numbers and played an MVP-type season.

Since we now know that we don’t really “know” FElton, and we certainly don’t idealize his heart and effort and selflessness anymore, is it possible that he just doesn’t care? He wants to make a good showing, and he doesn’t want to be an embarassment, but he got paid, and was injured again as well, and now maybe he’s happy to put the money in the bank and put up okay numbers. He seems, rather suddenly but perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising, like a guy who has little or no interest in getting another contract. It’s not fair to set him beside Dwight Howard, and it’s just one game and a 2nd consecutive comeback from major injury, but it somehow seems like he might be content sooner rather than later to be a guy who wanders around cashing big checks for very little production, a classic bad contract. But it’s still early.

It doesn’t seem, however, that he took the Dunleavy summer program, and the big effort to get into fantastic, elite shape, with him to Philly. It may be the old FElton, who gets the slow start and plays himself into better shape. But the old FElton was younger and hadn’t been injured.

The other thing that’s scary, as the story points out, is the coach and the Philly offense. I mentioned how FElton was never a great practice player, but Dunleavy was able to motivate him and he worked hard to get in great shape and practice the details of an offense that was almost completely focused on getting him the ball and setting him up. Now he’s playing in a different, motion-oriented game with back door cuts, one that gets better with constant practice and repetition. FElton might prosper as Chris Webber did in the high post in the offense, but it will require major changes from what he’s used to and he has to master it first, and he doesn’t sound very motivated.