The way Fultz is playing right now, if the draft were held today he would be put on a level with the "possible franchise" picks of the last decade: Simmons, KAT, Russell, Wiggins/Parker/Embiid, A. Davis, Kyrie, Wall etc.
His numbers are insanely good and he passes the eye test too. He does special things on the court.
If the draft order were set in stone and someone else had the #1 pick there is no way they would trade it (Fultz) today for Smart.
Of course we don't know that Fultz will *definitely* be better than Smart, but the consensus is surely that he is *likely to be much better* than Smart. He is a more valuable player right now.
And, the same would have been true if they were in the draft at the same time.
And further, I don't understand why "better right now" is a meaningful thing to discuss at all. So what if Fultz isn't demonstrably better right now? If we are pursuing a superstar in trade, and we offer Smart and another team offers Fultz, the team with Fultz wins every time. We'd clearly rather have him on our roster than Smart, because you can move assets if you want to. We'd also rather have him on the roster than not on it even with Smart here, for the same reason.