PHILADELPHIA >> In exchange for the No. 3 overall pick in the draft and another first-round draft choice, the 76ers last June acquired the right to hire Markelle Fultz. Turns out, they would have to throw in a cortisone shot, a significant period of rest, and a little more of their decayed executive reputation to learn if it was all worth the risk.

So far it has not. Nor is it growing closer.

Though he has been a welcome teammate and a willing learner, a refreshing communicator and the occasional supplier of a tidy highlight, Fultz has been, at best, an ordinary basketball player. He’d played in each of the Sixers’ first four games, shooting 9-for-27, not attempting a three-point shot, being lost on defense and both amusing and agitating with free-throw shooting form that made chiropractors and spectators cringe.

Unfortunately (conveniently?) for the Sixers, word leaked that Fultz had been in so much shoulder pain that he was unable to play at his best. From there, the Sixers began back-tracking their story, mentioning that Fultz had required a jolt of cortisone to relieve pain in his right shoulder. By Wednesday, Bryan Colangelo was announcing that Fultz would miss at least three games. In the Sixers-to-English dictionary, that translates to him returning sometime after that Christmas Day TV game.

“We try to put the player in the best possible position to succeed,” said Bryan Colangelo, the team president. “We’re hopeful to accomplish that. We’re going to take a step back and re-evaluate everything. We’ll take him out of the spotlight.

“He’s obviously been affected by whatever discomfort he’s had in his shoulder. The notion that there’s anything structurally wrong or that there is long-term concern is clearly not the case.”

And there it was, the usual: A first-round draft choice unable to contribute. The Sixers aren’t good at much. They are special, though, when it comes to resting rookies. There was Nerlens Noel for a year. There was Joel Embiid for two years. There was Ben Simmons last year. Fultz, at least, lasted four games before the nonsense began to flow.

“I feel that this is a time that he can take a deep breath,” Brett Brown said. “It’s a time that we can move him forward in a cleaner way. And I am looking at this as a positive.”

Any highly active athlete, professional or otherwise, has some decay in a joint or strain in a ligament. But the timing of the revelation of Fultz’s troubles was curious. Didn’t he insist, on Opening Night in Washington, that he was ready to play? Which suggests an alternate theory: Fultz was immensely over-valued.

At 19, and with only one year of college basketball on his sheet, he deserves more time before being tattooed as a failure. But if the Sixers did mis-evaluate him, it would be in their character. They have missed on multiple highly drafted players. From there, the trouble has compounded. Noel, after missing an entire season, was an All-Rookie player, but was unable to fit in a frontcourt with Embiid or Jahlil Okafor and was traded. Okafor, a No. 3 overall pick, is in his third season and is lost among the two-way-contract temps on Brown’s list of playing priorities. Embiid, a No. 3 overall pick, is in his fourth NBA season and Wednesday played his 35th career game. Simmons, the top pick overall, has filled stat sheets … non-three-point-shooting-numbers division.

That was the risk of The Process: Choosing the wrong prizes for all the failure. Fultz played one year at the University of Washington, helped his team win two games in an above-average conference, then saw his coach fired. Somehow, the draft-a-razzi anointed him as the world’s best available player. Yet before training camp was over, Brown said that playing the guard against elite NBA defenders would not be smart. Who did the Sixers think would be guarding their No. 1 pick, Allen Iverson’s aged three-on-three outfit?

“I think he’s got a lot more,” Embiid said. “He’s shown some flashes in practice. I’ve seen him working on stuff. And I watched his highlights from Washington. I think he’s got way more. He was the No. 1 pick for a reason. That’s why we traded so many assets to get him. I think he’s going to be the best player in the draft. I can’t wait to have him when he is fully healthy.”

That wasn’t the first time that sentiment was tossed around that locker room about an injured rookie. So Embiid could be right. Sometimes, it does takes a while for that to happen. The Sixers need to hope that’s all it takes this time.