Philadelphia 76ers: Tyrese Maxey, Shake Milton struggled in Toronto

Boy oh boy; how good was Scottie Barnes in his NBA debut?

I know it’s just the preseason, but my goodness, that kid was on fire. He put up 13 points, six assists, nine rebounds, two steals, and two blocks in 25 minutes of action and served as the team’s point of attack defender at the top of the key. My goodness, one could call his performance Ben Simmons-esque, even if that comparison flies out the window when you consider Barnes attempted a 3.

Now why, you may ask, would I waste close to 100 words on Scottie Barnes on this, a Philadelphia 76ers blog? Well, because that’s about the only nice thing I could say about the game.

… okay, technically that isn’t true. Andre Drummond turned in a preseason debut for the ages, Georges Niang put some nice work on tape, and Isaiah turned in yet another high-volume 3 point shooting clinic, but in a game where all eyes were firmly locked on the Sixers’ point guards, neither showed out particularly well.

Could Tyrese Maxey and/or Shake Milton put it all together and be ready to run the show when Joel Embiid and Tobias Harris are back in action come opening night? Potentially so, but if preseason Game 1 is of any indication, the Philadelphia 76ers really need to prioritize bringing back a starting-caliber point guard in any trade for Ben Simmons.

The Philadelphia 76ers can’t relive their 2020 playoff struggles.

Tyrese Maxey and Shake Milton played 40 combined minutes for the Philadelphia 76ers versus the Toronto Raptors. The duo combined for 13 points – 10 for Maxey, three for Shake – logged eight total assists versus six turnovers, and finished out the game 1-5 from the 3 point line.

Now if that was the stat line of one single point guard in 20ish minutes of action, it wouldn’t be the worst thing imaginable for a preseason debut. Sure, the turnover total is rather high, and going 1-5 from beyond the arc isn’t ideal for a floor-spacing point guard, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s acceptable.

Need proof? Just ask Fred VanVleet, the Raptors do-it-all combo guard, who put up comparable numbers in his 23 minutes of action.

But when the two players primarily tasked with running the show fail to run the show, things are going to get real ugly real quick, especially against a team like the Raptors.

With a seemingly endless rotation of 6-foot-8 players with long arms and defensive switchability, Maxey and Milton were constantly pressured by Toronto defenders who wanted nothing more than to break their concentration and disrupt the offense’s flow.

*spoiler alert* it worked.

Neither Maxey nor Milton looked particularly confident with the ball in their hands, and would often kick it out to anyone from Seth Curry to Andre Drummond in the hopes of getting points on the board.

Sidebar: Seth Curry has fortunately parlayed his playoff prowess into the preseason. 14 points in 17 minutes on 2-3 shooting from deep while recording two assists and four(!) steals. Fantastic stuff.

With no one player truly confident with their facilitating abilities on the court, this preseason iteration of the Sixers looked remarkably similar to their playoff counterparts from 2020, when Ben Simmons was out and the not-so-dynamic trio of Milton, Josh Richardson, and Alec Burks were tasked with running the show. Sure, that team has decent enough spacing sans Simmons, as every player in the rotation outside of Norvel Pelle and Kyle O’Quinn could hit shots from anywhere on the court, but it didn’t really matter all that much, as the offense was brutally inefficient and lacked any sort of reliable identity.

Could the Sixers benefit from similar spacing in 2021-22? Most definitely, but if they have to run five screens on every single play just to get off a contested shot, who is that really helping? Not the development of Maxey or the chances of Milton earning a second contract with the Sixers moving forward. It doesn’t even really help Embiid, who had a horrible time just getting the ball in Brett Brown‘s final hurrah as head coach.

The 76ers could certainly learn a thing or two from the 2020 playoffs, but it certainly shouldn’t be that point guards are optional.

Were the underwhelming performances of both Tyrese Maxey and Shake Milton aberrations, or the start of a larger, more worrying trend? Granted, it is just the preseason, but when neither of the team’s primary facilitators did a whole lot of facilitating, let alone picking apart the Toronto Raptors’ sophisticated defense, it’s worrisome. Trends do have to start somewhere after all, and with no obvious backcourt reinforcements waiting just over the horizon, the Philadelphia 76ers may have to reach outside their oeuvre to secure the sort of 3-and-D distributor perfectly suited to play off of Joel Embiid moving forward. And if they can somehow come away with a point forward like Scottie Barnes in that deal too? Well that, my friends, would just be gravy.