Philadelphia 76ers: Sixth Man Tyrese Maxey could pay playoff dividends

The last month (and change) of Tyrese Maxey‘s basketball career with the Philadelphia 76ers has been weird, to say the least.

Fresh off the best game of his rookie season, a game in which the 20-year-old dropped 39 points in 43 minutes, Maxey watched his playing time and role yo-yo with little rhyme or reason, playing 20-plus minutes one game, single digits the next.

Though some of this has to do with the players available to Doc Rivers in any given game, as the Sixers has been forced to rely on a variety of different lineups, both conventional and decidedly not so since the team suffered a brutal COVID outbreak, the consistency of Maxey’s minutes has been placed on the backburner in favor of winning games and (hopefully) testing out potential playoff lineups under lower stakes circumstances.

If Maxey didn’t play versus the Sacramento Kings because the team wanted to give Furkan Korkmaz more run, who am I to argue? If they opted to start the Turkish sharpshooter in their first contest against the Trail Blazers, that too is totally understandable, even if the results weren’t particularly effective. But opting to use Maxey as if he’s Isaiah Joe, Tony Bradley, or even Terrance Furgeson, aka bench reserves with no real chance to break the rotation, is a head-scratcher that simply doesn’t size up to the impressive playing sample the young Kentucky guard has already committed to tape.

The playoffs are the playoffs, but for now, with two-thirds of the NBA season still left to play, the Philadelphia 76ers would be incredibly wise to find a role that allows Maxey to play consistently, continue to develop versus NBA defenses, and maybe make enough waves to fully earn a spot in Rivers’ rotation when the live bullets of postseason basketball start to fly.

Shake Milton’s absence presents an opportunity for the Philadelphia 76ers.

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When Shake Milton came down awkwardly on his ankle in the Philadelphia 76ers’ 119-111 win over the Sacramento Kings, it felt like just another cruel blow in a season already filled with them.

Since finally returning to the court following his week stay on the COVID-exempt list, Milton was playing some of the best basketball of his career. He’d scored in double-digits in nine of his last 13 games, dropped 28 on the Memphis Grizzlies, and a season-high 31 on the Miami Heat in his first game back. Truly it was the best of times for the milkmen – or whatever Milton fans call themselves – and the former second-round pick was rapidly building a strong case for his Sixth Man of the Year candidacy… until he landed awkwardly on his ankle versus the Kings and was once again sent to the bench in street clothes.

Now there’s no doubt about it, losing Milton hurts the Sixers. They arguably would have beat the Trail Blazers in their nail-biter at the Moda Center with Milton logging 24 minutes versus Furkan Korkmaz as the team’s sixth man coming off the bench, and they’ll surely miss the 24-year-old Oklahoma native again if he is unable to go for a Saturday evening matinee versus the Phoenix Suns.

With that being said, losing Milton does open up minutes for Maxey and gives fans the world over an opportunity to see the rookie run the show as a sparkplug floor general coming off the bench.

Fresh off his first DNP of the 2020-21 NBA season, Maxey logged 12:35 of action in a relatively underwhelming outing versus Portland. He scored five points, made 2-8 shots from the field, missed all three of his 3s, and largely turned in a forgettable performance.

Why am I bringing this up? Well, because you have to start somewhere.

Maxey played two shifts against the Blazers, one alongside Simmons in place of Seth Curry and a second without either ball handlers. The first was rather familiar to any fans who have been watching the 6-foot-3 point guard all season. He split time on and off-ball with Simmons, switched on defense, and ran the floor well but was largely an ineffective piece who was just a guy.

While there can be times where that look is effective, especially when the Sixers are playing fast and loose with Simmons running the show as a do-it-all swing forward, deploying Maxey off-ball, especially when he’s hesitant to let his outside shot fly, is not a particularly effective way to play to his strengths.

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Giving Maxey a chance to run the show without Simmons, Curry, or Milton on the court, however, was a look we haven’t seen in some time and gave fans a glimpse of the best possible way to deploy the young guard moving forward.

Paired up with Korkmaz in a seldom-used backcourt combination, Maxey ran the show for about six minutes, and for the most part, the offense looked competent. Now granted, Dwight Howard still pulled some Dwight Howard things, and the Sixers were seemingly unable to stop Carmelo Anthony from turning in a vintage performance that would make the city of Denver blush, but that really isn’t on Maxey per se. My biggest knock on Maxey’s performance versus Portland, outside the lack of confidence in his outside shot, was that he didn’t do enough to get his teammates involved, as he finished out the game without a single assist.

But again, no biggie. If Maxey was going to come in and immediately revolutionize the second unit as a hardened floor general, he likely would have been filling that role for a while now. What the Sixers need to do, however, is see if that look is viable moving forward, as it gives them the best opportunity to keep Maxey in the rotation.

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Assuming Shake Milton isn’t back for Saturday’s contest against the Suns, it’ll be incredibly interesting to see if Doc Rivers opts to give Tyrese Maxey more play as the Philadelphia 76ers’ primary reserve point for the 12-ish minutes a night Simmons isn’t on the court, or will he instead opt to cobble together lead guard minutes with a ball handler-by-committee approach? That decision, though seemingly inconsequential to the actual scoreboard, could tell outside observers a ton about how the coaching staff views Maxey at this point in his career and how his role will evolve over the forthcoming weeks. If it goes well, well, maybe Rivers has a new look he can further cultivate for the playoffs.