Sixers: If Doc Rivers really likes Tyrese Maxey, why doesn’t he play more?

When the Sixers landed Tyrese Maxey with the 21st overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, it let like a revolution.

Despite having a low-key desperate need for 3-and-D shooters to pair up with Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid, a role perfectly suited for players still on the board like Desmond Bane, the idea of landing a dynamic, two-way point guard with experience playing both on and off-ball under Kentucky head coach John Calipari was just too good to be true.

Many an observer dubbed Maxey’s drafting “the steal of the draft” while others called the 6-foot-2 guard the perfect player to fill out the Sixers’ homegrown Big 3, which may look foolish in a few years depending on where Maxey earns his second contract form.

Even Doc Rivers has spoken glowingly about his lone player born in the 2000s, applauding Maxey’s energy before stating back in December, “We’re just going to throw him in there, let him play, and see what he has. I love the way he looks; I’ll tell you that.”

Hmm… how’s that going?

Tyrese Maxey can’t seem to crack the Sixers’ rotation, and that’s a problem.

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The Sixers bench is not consistent.

I know it. Teams who play the Sixers know it. And deep down, I think the team knows it too, as they’ll watch helplessly by as their reserves rack up 15, 20, 25 points a game while the starters have to shoulder the vast majority of the team’s burden only to then drop 67 points in a game out of nowhere versus a pretty good team like the Indiana Pacers.

While the team does have a few solid players who can fill very specific roles very well, like Shake Milton with his scoring, Matisse Thybulle with his perimeter defense, and Dwight Howard with his rebounding, the rest of the squad have players who don’t do one thing particularly well and sometimes can’t do any one aspect of the game particularly well either.

In theory, Tyrese Maxey should have no problems breaking into Doc Rivers’ rotation, as he is unquestionably one of the team’s 10 best players; so far though, that hasn’t been the case.

No, for every impressive outing Maxey commits to tape, you’ll get a few contests where he doesn’t even record a minute, or worse, plays like a rookie on a team looking for plug-‘n-play veteran roleplayers.

Whether you like Maxey’s moxie or hate it wholeheartedly every time he passes up an open 3 for one of his signature floaters, he is unquestionably a rookie and still makes rookie mistakes about as often as one would expect from a player selected outside of the lottery. He’s recorded multiple turnovers on five separate occasions, finished out 20 of his 32 games with a negative +/-, and potentially most darning of all, has only recorded multiple assists in 46 percent of his games so far this season.

*spoiler alert* that isn’t very good.

But again, Maxey is a rookie. In college, he wasn’t a particularly good outside shooter (29.2 percent from 3) and actually averaged more rebounds (4.3) than assists (3.2) over his lone season in Kentucky. He isn’t playing poorly versus expectations or struggling to translate his game from the NCAA to the pros. No, for better or worse, Maxey has come pretty much as advertised minus some of the hype around his on-ball backcourt defense, which obviously will come along with more physical development.

So, assuming Rivers, Daryl Morey, and the rest of the Sixers brass knew what they were signing up for when they took Maxey four picks before his Wildcats backcourt mate Immanuel Quickley was selected by the New York Knicks, why are they suddenly acting like the rookie’s strengths and weaknesses are a surprise?

If Philly really wanted another shooter who plays solid defense, Desmond Bane was once again still on the board at 21 and is currently connecting on 45 percent of his shots from beyond the arc. It’s not like anyone expected Maxey to come in and become the second coming of Trae Young or anything.

Right on the edge? Come on Doc, you pick the rotation.

Honestly, even if the Sixers aren’t particularly sold on Maxey as a long-term piece as the roster is currently constructed, wouldn’t getting him more playing time only help to generate more buzz on the trade market? Surely some team in a transitional phase would love to have a player like Maxey on their roster to build a young backcourt around well into the future. Maybe a team with a point guard born in our fair city?

Simply put, keeping Maxey on ice even if he’s behind the starters, Milton, Thybulle, Howard, and Mike Scott on the depth chart isn’t doing anyone any favors; not Maxey, not the Sixers, and not even the front office who may be fully willing to cash out on the young guard as part of a win-now move.

The Sixers didn’t draft Tyrese Maxey because he was the best player in the 2020 NBA Draft or even the best fit in the class for their specific needs (that would be Tyrese Halaburton btw). No, by my estimation at least, the Sixers selected the 20-year-old point guard out of Kentucky because they felt he was the best player left on the border when the 21st overall pick went on the clock. If that is true and the Sixers genuinely thought Maxey a better prospect than Desmond Bane, Tyrell Terry, or Xavier Tillman, why are they playing him sporadically instead of putting him in the best position to succeed? I mean, how else are you going to “see how he looks” when he’s chilling on the bench?