Eyes wide, Tyrese Maxey cocked his head, took an absent-minded sip from his smoothie, and looked back and forth between the 20-year-old teammate next to him at the podium and a room full of reporters. “Excuse me?” He asked, having just learned that Jared McCain declared himself the Rookie of the Year.
This was the headline from an eventual postgame press conference after McCain hung 30 points in a rare Philadelphia 76ers win this season, but I found these quotes much more revealing:
“When you have two ball handlers out there, it makes the game a lot easier,” Maxey said. “Now I can get off the ball and relax a little bit and catch my breath. It’s hard when you have the ball the entire game.”
Added McCain: “It’s pretty easy to play with him,” he said of Maxey. “There’s so much attention he draws. Anytime he has the ball I feel like I’m open because they always are inching towards him when he’s about to drive.”
We’re only a month into this backcourt partnership, but it’s already begun to redefine a Sixers season that, to put it lightly, hasn’t gone as expected.
As Joel Embiid and Paul George disappoint, McCain has shined. He leads all rookies with 16.6 points per game and is breaking records (his 24 3-pointers in his first five starts are the most in league history). He’s earned a starting role on a veteran team with championship aspirations. His outburst was more than bravado. He’s the clear front-runner for Rookie of the Year and maybe the only silver lining in a season that has gone sideways.
The 76ers are 3-12 and flirting with the worst record in the league. Embiid has played in only four games because of a nagging knee injury. Paul George, the summer’s free-agent prize, is posting some of the worst numbers of his career.
The false start and reckless drama has been enough to elicit trade rumors for Embiid. If Embiid’s days in Philadelphia are truly numbered, then the franchise may have already found the next face (or faces) of the franchise.
Maxey and McCain – or “M&M” – are establishing a partnership that could drive the Sixers in Embiid’s absence. Philadelphia’s 3-13 record doesn’t exactly back up this statement, nor does the fact that Maxey was clearly overtaxed in a lead role to start the season and has seen his numbers slide from last season’s All-Star campaign, but these are early days of a burgeoning partnership coated in drama. There are signs that the backcourt’s best basketball is ahead of them.
It’s true that backcourts with small guards don’t usually work. Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum failed to break through in the West for years because of their inherent limitations on defense. But Philly’s backcourt has some advantages that Portland’s did not.
Maxey is only 6-foot-3 but has a 6-foot-8 wingspan. There’s potential for him to be a plus defender, even if he hasn’t been so far in his career. McCain is 6-foot-2 with an average wingspan, but he has a strong frame that belies his youth and should help him hold his own on that end.
Offensively, Maxey and McCain can be special. Maxey’s driving ability opens up Philadelphia’s offense. Among players averaging at least 13 drives per game, only Sacramento’s De’Aaron Fox (81.3%) is generating points for his team more than Maxey (74.8%) on those drives.
Meanwhile, McCain could be a special shooter. He’s making 40% of his threes, including 47.5% on catch-and-shoot attempts. Maxey driving and kicking to McCain is a recipe for success.
Rather than Lillard and McCollum, Maxey and McCain could be more similar to Cleveland’s successful tandem of Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland. Like Maxey, Mitchell has impressive physical traits and gets to the rim with ease. Garland is thriving as a catch-and-shoot floor-spacer who can also create for his backcourt teammate.
Building around two “small” guards can be difficult, but the 76ers have the size needed to surround them with. George, Caleb Martin, Kelly Oubre Jr., KJ Martin, Ricky Council IV and Guerschon Yabusele are all 6-foot-5 or taller and capable defenders. If Embiid is crossing over into a new phase of his career, he’s still a mountain of a defensive presence at 7 feet tall.
“We both play hard,” McCain said when asked about how he and Maxey can hold up defensively. “At this point, they’re going to get the mismatch. They’re going to have an offensive scheme to try to go at us. But as long as we play hard, we’ll be able to hold our own.”
Of course, if it were all this simple, the 76ers wouldn’t be reeling and 10 games under .500. Maxey and McCain still need to iron out the details. The Sixers are allowing 120.4 points per 100 possessions – a mark that would rank dead last in defensive rating for the season – when they share the floor, per Cleaning The Glass.
But it’s hard to separate M&M’s limitations from the injuries and drama impacting the rest of the roster. Using “vibes” as a measurement, Maxey and McCain lead the team in this metric.
Maxey has clearly taken a leadership role on this team, perhaps filling a void in doing so. According to reports, he called out Embiid in front of the team. McCain is walking on sunshine.
Their two-man game isn’t what anyone expected to be talking about at this point in the season, but on a team for which little has gone to plan, watching Maxey and McCain explore this partnership has been refreshing.