Post#180 » by Winejk » Thu Nov 26, 2020 1:28 am
I'm a huge Toney fan so take whatever I say with a grain of salt.
He would have been one of the all time greats if he had a longer career. If Toney had been able to be healthy when Barkley took over the team the Sixers would have been formidable.
To me Toney was a better version of Joe Dumars. Dumars was a two guard that could play PG as well. Both could shoot. Both could handle the rock. Toney was better at getting to the rim and finishing. Both played good defense. The difference is Toney could carry a team while Dumars was more of high level all around chemistry guy. Moses gets most of the credit for getting the Sixers over the top in 1982-83, but you could arguably say the emergence of Toney was just as important. Toney's emergence meant the Sixers had three go to scorers (Moses, Doc and Toney), and Toney could do it in the most different ways.
Toney had an explosive first step. He also could post up. I remember him posting up Larry Bird and abusing him despite being 4-5 inches shorter. There literally was nothing he couldn't do. Too bad he got injured and then had a feud with the then Sixers owner, Harold Katz. It is a shame Toney isn't more involved with the Sixers (When Maurice Cheeks was head coach he almost got Toney to be an assistant coach.) in his retirement. He pretty much disavows the team and keeps to himself.
Without looking it up, I positive he would be an advance stat darling in today's world. He was insanely efficient scoring. For a SG his FG% was well over .500. He didn't take many 3FGA mainly because nobody did back in the day, but he could shoot it. He got to the line at a good rate and knocked them down at a good rate. I think he averaged 4+ assists a game which is good for a SG. About the only problem with Toney was he was turnover prone, but back in the day most guys with high usage had bad turnover stats.
Anyway, I don't know Maxey's game that well, but if he's even close to Toney we got a good one.