Welcome Tyrese Maxey!

[mjkvol]

Once Simmons sets the screen, does he roll where he may get fouled and have to go to the line, or does he pop for the open jumper? Today’s game is basically position less but if you can’t do the fundamentals you really are out of place anywhere on offense.

Simmons isn't returning, but if he ever did I would hope that he at least was over his FT phobia.

[Mik317]

Maxey''s best skill is that he is willing to learn and try new ****. He has added things to his game over the course of just this season so far alone. I have a hard time trading a guy who is willing to put in work to improve

[Kobblehead]

Maxey''s best skill is that he is willing to learn and try new ****. He has added things to his game over the course of just this season so far alone. I have a hard time trading a guy who is willing to put in work to improve

I don't really see improvement, though.

Last year: 18.8 ppg per 36, 4 3pa per 36, 19.9% assist, 1.3% steal, 1.2% block
This year: 16 ppg per 36, 3.3 3pa per 36, 19.5% assist, 1.2% steal, 1.4% block

Seems like his passing and defense has plateaued. Offensively, he's scoring less despite not facilitating more. And he's shooting less even though he's shooting a higher percentage.

I don't think he got better, he's just getting more time. I don't see any tangible evidence of him improving or growing new dimensions to his game.

[Sixerscan]

Maxey''s best skill is that he is willing to learn and try new ****. He has added things to his game over the course of just this season so far alone. I have a hard time trading a guy who is willing to put in work to improve

I don't really see improvement, though.

Last year: 18.8 ppg per 36, 4 3pa per 36, 19.9% assist, 1.3% steal, 1.2% block
This year: 16 ppg per 36, 3.3 3pa per 36, 19.5% assist, 1.2% steal, 1.4% block

Seems like his passing and defense has plateaued. Offensively, he's scoring less despite not facilitating more. And he's shooting less even though he's shooting a higher percentage.

I don't think he got better, he's just getting more time. I don't see any tangible evidence of him improving or growing new dimensions to his game.

Well first of all, staying the same is basically improving this year with how much worse offense is with the rule changes, but those statistics are worthless without taking into account the change in role. If he was mostly playing with second units like he did last year his stats would probably be a lot better, see how many points he has scored the last two games. Also last year Doc would bench him when he wasn't playing well which inflates his stats, whereas now he has to play a lot every night regardless.

And the biggest thing is he's been much more efficient at the rim and from 3, going from a .531 TS% (league average was .572) last year to .574 this year (league average is .549, again, offense is down this year). If we're just judging him based on box score stats, well his PER which is a weighing of box score stats has risen from 14.5 to 16.3.

And of course I disagree with the way you judge defense as we have discussed in the past.

[Murray_17]

Maxey''s best skill is that he is willing to learn and try new ****. He has added things to his game over the course of just this season so far alone. I have a hard time trading a guy who is willing to put in work to improve

I don't really see improvement, though.

Last year: 18.8 ppg per 36, 4 3pa per 36, 19.9% assist, 1.3% steal, 1.2% block
This year: 16 ppg per 36, 3.3 3pa per 36, 19.5% assist, 1.2% steal, 1.4% block

Seems like his passing and defense has plateaued. Offensively, he's scoring less despite not facilitating more. And he's shooting less even though he's shooting a higher percentage.

I don't think he got better, he's just getting more time. I don't see any tangible evidence of him improving or growing new dimensions to his game.

Well first of all, staying the same is basically improving this year with how much worse offense is with the rule changes, but those statistics are worthless without taking into account the change in role. If he was mostly playing with second units like he did last year his stats would probably be a lot better, see how many points he has scored the last two games. Also last year Doc would bench him when he wasn't playing well which inflates his stats, whereas now he has to play a lot every night regardless.

And the biggest thing is he's been much more efficient at the rim and from 3, going from a .531 TS% (league average was .572) last year to .574 this year (league average is .549, again, offense is down this year). If we're just judging him based on box score stats, well his PER which is a weighing of box score stats has risen from 14.5 to 16.3.

And of course I disagree with the way you judge defense as we have discussed in the past.

Not only this, per36 work under the assumption that the increase in shots it's followed with the same fg% which is not a sensical assumption, because at major volume of shots your FG% should decrease. That's why using per 36 is not logical when you meassure players who play less than 20-25 minutes, like Maxey did in his rookie season.

The fact the per36 projection of Maxey rookie season versus the actual per36 this season (because he's playing 35 minutes) is similar, shows that he basically mantained his FG% projection even when he increased the volume of shots he's taken, which is already a big development.

Which also explain why his efficency increased despite having similar per36.

[Mik317]

He's starting now for one. He got a lot of his points last year in garbage time against deep bench units. And improvement is more than just stats. He is taking different shots than he did last year. Those scoop layups weren't there last year. And he has played a gazillion minutes and hasn't turned the ball over.

Its not just stats.

[blargh]

He's starting now for one. He got a lot of his points last year in garbage time against deep bench units. And improvement is more than just stats. He is taking different shots than he did last year. Those scoop layups weren't there last year. And he has played a gazillion minutes and hasn't turned the ball over.

Its not just stats.

+1

You can’t compare the assignments (offensively and defensively) Maxey has had this year to last year. He’s playing against a different caliber player.

[ExplosionsInDaSky]

I fail to see any possible reason why any of us would start to pile the shade on Maxey! It's absolutely baffling to me that there would be any complaints about this kid right now. First of all...Yeah....He's totally not a point guard if point guard to you is a distributing playmaker that sets others up to score. Ben Simmons is definitely more of a point guard than Maxey, but Maxey is doing his best being thrown into the position. He's taken the job and handled it quite well all things considered. Again, he's not a point guard, he's a scorer in the mold of a Lou Williams. He's going to improve, he's going to get better and more efficient. I frankly do NOT want to see him moved back to the bench at any point! I think he's riding a big wave of momentum and is only going to improve. We've been pounding the table for a scoring guard for six years now! We finally have one and it's like it's not good enough or it's not what YOU want. I hope like hell we do not trade this kid. He's filling a major void for us right now. He's also softened the blow of not having Simmons out there and he's allowed us to expand our options when we finally do trade that bum from this team.
I feel like you have to be patient with these players. Let them play, let them figure the game out. You can't hide him on the bench forever or baby him by just bringing him along slowly. Maxey is wired a bit differently I think. He's a competitor and unlike Fultz, unlike Simmons, he's fearless and unafraid of the moment. With a player like that, you let them make their mistakes and you live with it. We're much better off with him as our point guard then we are with Ben Simmons in my opinion. It's such a relief to see someone running the position with some toughness and moxy to them. Kid has got guts, I think he's going to be a great player for a long time.

[Kobblehead]

We're definitely in an awkward phase where Maxey is playing a ton of minutes and not really doing much when he's on the court. He's apprehensive (understandably so) and floating out there for a good chunk of his minutes.

It's fine if he doesn't want to offend the starters by attacking a bunch off the dribble and going one-on-one, but he's got to find more ways to be useful when he's on the court. I want to see him taking catch and shoot threes or generating assists for others.

[Stanford]

Kibblehorse wrong per usual

[ExplosionsInDaSky]

33 points tonight, b2b games scoring in that range. Looks plenty assertive to me.

[phifans]

We're definitely in an awkward phase where Maxey is playing a ton of minutes and not really doing much when he's on the court. He's apprehensive (understandably so) and floating out there for a good chunk of his minutes.

It's fine if he doesn't want to offend the starters by attacking a bunch off the dribble and going one-on-one, but he's got to find more ways to be useful when he's on the court. I want to see him taking catch and shoot threes or generating assists for others.

You should just stop commending on Maxey anymore which makes you like a fool ....

[DCasey91]

Maxey''s best skill is that he is willing to learn and try new ****. He has added things to his game over the course of just this season so far alone. I have a hard time trading a guy who is willing to put in work to improve

I don't really see improvement, though.

Last year: 18.8 ppg per 36, 4 3pa per 36, 19.9% assist, 1.3% steal, 1.2% block
This year: 16 ppg per 36, 3.3 3pa per 36, 19.5% assist, 1.2% steal, 1.4% block

Seems like his passing and defense has plateaued. Offensively, he's scoring less despite not facilitating more. And he's shooting less even though he's shooting a higher percentage.

I don't think he got better, he's just getting more time. I don't see any tangible evidence of him improving or growing new dimensions to his game.

Per 36 is doo doo for a youngster or a bench player. It’s like giving more volume to another player = same production that’s not how it works at all. Because if they could then most likely they would.

Fwiw Maxey is shooting above 38% from 3 almost doubling his volume. He’s in the process of fixing and tidying up his range shot.

Last year he was on the negatives for TS/FG add now this he’s in the positives.

Not improving? Please he’s the most improved player besides KORKGOD this year that we’ve kept and developed.

You are literally batting at 1/1000 (only hit was Anthony).

Put down the puff puff man.

[Hussien Fatal]

We're definitely in an awkward phase where Maxey is playing a ton of minutes and not really doing much when he's on the court. He's apprehensive (understandably so) and floating out there for a good chunk of his minutes.

It's fine if he doesn't want to offend the starters by attacking a bunch off the dribble and going one-on-one, but he's got to find more ways to be useful when he's on the court. I want to see him taking catch and shoot threes or generating assists for others.

Lol this has to be the dumbest post on the Sixers board that I’ve seen in a while.

[Kobblehead]

Maxey dropped 39 as a 20 year old. I've been saying since day 1 that he was our best 1-on-1 player and most skilled shotcreator we've had in this franchise in decades.

He still needs to find ways to look more comfortable playing with the regular starters. He can't stand around and float. He needs to shoot way more catch and shoot threes than he is right now. And when he's deferring, he needs to find the way to generate open shots for others and wrack up the assists instead of just standing around.

He needs to assimilate better with Embiid-Harris-Green-Curry.

[sodmoraes]

I agree that Maxey looks a bit tentative when playing with the starters. I think he doesnt wanna upset our max players, so he defers a lot. But if Doc has a brain, he should try to focus more Maxey on our offense. A offense focused on Embiid and MAxey is way better that one focused on Embiid and Tobias. Maxey driving game is insane. His jumper is improving too. I think next year he will be a beast offensively, probably he will be shooting a lot of pullup 3s and all that.

But Harris ir our "max player", so i think he will continue getting way more touches than Maxey... We should play MAxey and Embiid pnr all day long. I hope, by mid season, MAxey feels more confortable running our team.

[mjkvol]

Maxey dropped 39 as a 20 year old. I've been saying since day 1 that he was our best 1-on-1 player and most skilled shotcreator we've had in this franchise in decades.

He still needs to find ways to look more comfortable playing with the regular starters. He can't stand around and float. He needs to shoot way more catch and shoot threes than he is right now. And when he's deferring, he needs to find the way to generate open shots for others and wrack up the assists instead of just standing around.

He needs to assimilate better with Embiid-Harris-Green-Curry.

Gotta hand it to you - you never give up.

The kid is 21, and has been given the responsibility of running an NBA team with championship aspirations at a position his skill set isn't perfectly suited for, and has shown marked improvement in every area while playing heavy minutes. He has the guts to want the ball in the biggest spots and has zero fear of the moment. You can quote all the numbers you want, but just watching the games and seeing his impact and the way the rest of the team views him this early makes your criticism look silly.

Does he need to improve in many areas and iron out some parts of his game? I'd bet he would be the first to say that, and being a gym rat we know that he'll work his ass off. No one is above criticism, but right now is the time to enjoy what this kid brings every night and watch as he improves. There are areas on this team that need to be addressed, but at this point Maxey is the least of them.

[ExplosionsInDaSky]

I think this will eventually transition into being his team from a leading scorer/go to guy point of view. Embiid is going to take a step back eventually and become more of a modern day center at some point. This is clearly still his team, but eventually it could be the Embiid/Maxey show which is crazy to think. Again, Tobias Harris will have to be traded or move on (which he will), but right now I don't think Maxey could be in a better situation. He's playing meaningful minutes and being very productive with them on a team that has playoff aspirations. That's always a recipe for a great outcome in my opinion.

[mjkvol]

But Harris ir our "max player", so i think he will continue getting way more touches than Maxey... We should play MAxey and Embiid pnr all day long. I hope, by mid season, MAxey feels more confortable running our team.

If that trend continues, it is the worst kind of coaching incompetence. There was a dramatic difference in how the team looked last night with Harris on the floor compared to the six games he was out. He is the perfect bad storm - a ball stopper who isn't a reliable go-to guy in big spots. Like virtually every game, his numbers look fine but the reality of his impact is far different.

[AJ416]

Raps fan here after watching the game last night, was super impressed with Maxey. Just a great motor and awesome handles. I remember seeing him last year and thinking he was a great defensive specialist but his offensive game has grown so much, love the way he plays. Lowry for Maxey and a first,lol...what was I thinking last year as a raps fan,lol