PHILADELPHIA -- Sixers coach Brett Brown was ecstatic after Tuesday night's game. Why wouldn't he be?

It was a dominant victory over a Wizards team that entered with the Eastern Conference's third-best record and on a five-game winning streak. The crowd was littered with Eagles fans, the energy palpable after the Eagles' miraculous Super Bowl LII victory a couple of days earlier.

Brown's smile curled downward a few questions into his postgame press conference. Of course, it was a question about Markelle Fultz. Not just one, a few.

When Brown stood in front of the media, he was not aware that Fultz had spoken to TNT, the network which broadcast the Sixers-Wizards game.

There, Fultz told TNT's Caron Butler -- a former NBA player -- that he was trying to "re-learn" his shot. The full quote, in response to a question about his frustration with missing so much time. Fultz has missed the Sixers' last 47 games with shoulder and issues related to his strangely altered shot form.

"It's been tough, but at the end of the day I know it's going to make me better," Fultz said. "It's been a long journey just trying to re-learn it (his shot). I'm just going through it and I want to go back out there as quick as I can but it's been a slow process."

The interview aired while the Sixers were playing. Brown had no way of knowing what was said.

"I understand your questions. I really don't know much about it," Brown said. "I'll look forward to listening and learning more. But as I sit up here, I don't really know much about what went on."

Fultz hasn't played since Oct. 21, and hasn't been made available to the media since then, either. It's generally the NBA's policy that if a player doesn't participate in every drill in practice, he's not required to partake in media responsibilities.

That begs the question ... what's the hold-up?

"He doesn't go through everything -- there are some drills I take him out of -- but he does go through a lot," Brown said. "He does go through a large majority of the practice. It isn't 100 percent yet but it is a very large majority of our practice."

But what drills is he missing, exactly?

"When I feel like there's some conditioning stuff, I'll take him out of it," Brown said. "But it's not much."

Why?

"Because I feel like he looks like he hasn't played basketball for a while so I take him out of it," he said.

All of that, leads to the overarching question as it relates to Fultz -- at what point does it become too late in the season to bring him back? When does it become detrimental for Fultz, the team, or both to try and force him back into the rotation?

Brown said he doesn't really think about the situation like that, though he understands the question.

No, there isn't a deadline.

"I don't think there is," Brown said. "I understand at what point does he come back and it doesn't help us, like it gets disruptive? I don't see that timeline. I don't see that. I think that when he's available, I'll try to figure it out. But in relation to, like, a drop dead date? That has not been discussed?"

Fultz is a 19-year-old rookie who hasn't played a competitive game of basketball since the beginning of the season, and it's not like that was much to write home about. He averaged six points, 2.3 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.5 turnovers and didn't attempt a single three-pointer in 19 minutes per game. That's not exactly an inspiring performance for the No. 1 overall pick.

Fultz's only exposure to the public since then has been at the tail end of practice, morning pregame shootarounds and before games as Fultz has practiced mostly free-throw shooting, dribble penatration, dunks, drives, pull-up and fadeaway jumpers. Fultz hasn't attempted a single three-pointer in those short periods in front of the media in a couple weeks.

Since then, the Sixers (26-25) have developed on-court chemistry and are in the thick of a close playoff race, well past the halfway point of the season. Fultz doesn't seem to be on track to return before the All-Star break, which begins Feb. 15, and the Sixers only have 27 games remaining before the playoffs afterwards.

For his part, Fultz seems to be angling to return.

It's "very frustrating. I'm a competitor," Fultz told Butler. "I want to be out there real bad, competing with my team. So it's been tough really, but at the end of the day, I know it's going to make me better."

At what point this season, though, does it stop making the Sixers better?

Zack Rosenblatt may be reached at zsr1090@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @ZackBlatt. Find NJ.com on Facebook.