In the wake of Tyrese Maxey’s career-high 54 points in Philadelphia’s overtime win over the Milwaukee Bucks, it’s time to stop and reassess the season we’re watching unfold from the 25-year-old guard.
Now at 33.4 points per game, he’s second in the league in scoring behind Luka Doncic (34.6 ppg). He’s far and away leading the league in minutes played at 40.7 minutes per game, a figure that looks like if you’re playing a hoops video game with fatigue turned off. It’s possible to both acknowledge that Nick Nurse absolutely has to stop pushing his star point guard so hard, and marvel that Maxey is doing it. Despite the extreme workload, Tyrese’s efficiency hasn’t suffered one bit. His 42.1 percent mark from three-point range is well above his career average at a career-high volume (9.7 attempts per game), and his assist-to-turnover ratio is a solid 2.81 mark.
As players have shuffled in and out of the lineup, Maxey has been a constant, with he and VJ Edgecombe the only Sixers to start all 15 games thus far (joined by Quentin Grimes and Jabari Walker in appearing in every contest). With nearly every game for the Cardiac Sixers coming down to the final minute, more often than not, it has been Tyrese who the team turns to with everything on the line.
Although the Sixers have an encouraging 9-6 record to start the season, it would be understandable for fans to be a bit detached when the championship goal still feels extremely far away. Paul George only just returned to game action, logging two appearances on the season. Joel Embiid has a new, vague knee ailment with unclear timelines on when he’ll be taking the court. Kelly Oubre Jr had a tremendous start to the year, only to be felled down by a sprained LCL. Jared McCain has understandably not picked up right where he left off following a lengthy absence due to a meniscus surgery and torn ligament in his thumb. There have been any number of flies in the ointment through just one month of the season, even though the Sixers have won more games than they’ve lost.
And yet, let’s not let any of those potentially negative feelings surrounding the team distract or detract from a historically great season by Maxey. We’re about 18 percent of the way through the season and you can make reasonable cases for him to appear on MVP ballots and be First-Team All-NBA. Franchise legend Allen Iverson was the last Sixers guard to travel in these sorts of stratospheric NBA circles. At his current pace, Maxey is going to be on the top-10 of the Sixers’ all-time points list within the next two years. I hate to get too far ahead of things, but if Tyrese stays healthy and with the franchise, it’s entirely realistic for him to top Hal Greer for the top spot in his early-to-mid 30’s. Obviously, a lot would have to stay going well between now and then, but the point is, it’s not simply fan wishcasting to consider that we’re watching someone who may go down as one of the best Sixers of all time.
So even if you think this Philadelphia team’s ceiling is losing in the first round of the playoffs, or if you’re frustrated at the idea of what the roster could be if the team didn’t have two of what were considered to be the worst contracts in the league, remember to enjoy what Tyrese Maxey is doing at the moment. Plenty of franchises dream about having someone playing as well as Maxey right now, so don’t take a single one of these performances for granted.
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