Philadelphia 76ers: Want to optimize Tyrese Maxey? Trade for a point guard

Tyrese Maxey is 20 years old for four more days as of the time of this article’s publication.

He’s appeared in 74 NBA games with nine starts for the Philadelphia 76ers, and has scored 20-plus points in 20 of those contests, which is by no way an NBA record, but is impressive nonetheless for a player drafted well out of the lottery.

For a team with an incumbent starting point guard who is currently MIA for a number of reasons, Maxey presents a very intriguing alternative future where Joel Embiid can play off of a guard who can both shoot free throws and 3 pointers.

And yet, even in a 20 point win where Maxey put up 20 points, seven rebounds, and five assists, it’s clear his game isn’t quite ready to be the second best player on a championship team.

Surprising? Hardly. Again, Maxey hasn’t even surpassed 1,000 regular season minutes of NBA action and is largely tapping into his raw, unadulterated talent to score points, but to truly come into his own as a full-time point guard, the 76ers would be wise to pair him up with another, experienced point guard with a complimentary set of skills.

Is that a bit of a contradiction? Potentially so, but it also makes a ton of sense both for the Philadelphia 76ers in 2021 and for Tyrese Maxey’s development moving forward.

The Philadelphia 76ers need more playmakers to keep their offense flowing.

Did you happen to catch any Oklahoma City Thunder games during the 2019-20 NBA season?

I know that feels like a decade ago, especially when you consider the league suspended operations for a solid swatch of that season, but think back, if you will, so a simpler time when Carmelo Anthony was considered washed and Daryl Morey was willing to give up Chris Paul and four first round picks for Russell Westbrook.

That particular Thunder squad had four really good players and one big problem: Three of them played the same position.

Yes, you read that correctly, outside of Steven Adams, who is an old-school throwback center, the rest of the team’s top-end talent, Paul, Dennis Schroder, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander all made their NBA bones playing on-ball point guard.

While fighting tooth and nail for a spot in the Western Conference Finals was effectively off the table for Sam Presti’s squad, the Thunder still had the potentially to be pretty good, and would surely have to do some very creative lineup work to stagger enough minutes to keep the trio happy.

… or Billy Donovan could just play the three point guards together. I mean why not, right?

Regardless of what conventional wisdom would suggest, the Thunder’s offense never became too ISO heavy and the squad kept the ball moving enough to field the 16th ranked offense in the NBA and earn the fifth seed in the Western Conference.

Mind you, that was a bit too good for Presti’s taste, as it effectively delivered the Philadelphia 76ers Tyrese Maxey because the team’s pick fell outside of the top-20, but theoretically, that team could have remained a good, fun team for a few years more if it wasn’t intentionally blown up.

So, other than securing Maxey’s services to the City of Brotherly Love, what more value does thinking back on that particular Thunder squad bring to fans in Philly? Is it that teams can eventually get desperate enough to trade four first round picks and a Hall of Fame-caliber point guard for a walking triple-double sans a reliable outside shot? Or that Daryl Morey should have traded for Schroder instead of Danny Green last fall?

In my humble opinion, the takeaway is simple; the best way to develop a young point guard is by pairing him up with an older point guard with a complementary skill set.

I mean think about it, what did/does SGA do well? Well, he’s a tall, rangey guard who largely picked up his points as a driver as a rookie point guard under Doc Rivers. Sure, he shined some serious potential on the defensive end of the court, averaging .5 blocks and 1.2 steals in 26.5 minutes of action, but Gilgeous-Alexander seldom took more than two 3 pointers per game and largely earned his points off of raw talent, as opposed to finely developed skills.

Playing alongside CP3 – and Schroder too, I guess – helped to develop his game considerably. SGA doubled his average 3 point shots per game while maintaining his rookie season effieiciency and developed as both a passer and rebounder splitting his time between the one, two, and three spot.

That’s what Tyrese Maxey needs; a CP3.

Now granted, that’s a whole lot easier said than done. At this point, the only real “veteran” point guard who has been linked to the Sixers is Goran Dragic, who Marc Stein believes could be had alongside O.G. Anunoby in a deal with the Toronto Raptors, and he’s far from the same caliber player or passer as Paul, even at the tender age of 36.

Sidebar: Did you know Dragic is only a year younger than Paul? Crazy.

While not quite tenured, the Sixers have similarly been linked to other “combo guards” who can play varying degrees of D and shoot varying percentages from 3. Though some of these players, like Malcolm Brogdon, are no longer eligible to be traded due to extension restrictions, players like Tyrese Haliburton, Fred VanVleet, and even D’Angelo Russell could all rotate with Maxey at the one or play alongside him in the same backcourt.

I know DLo gets a lot of hate for his efficiency, but he’s one of only eight players in the NBA who averaged 19 points, 5.8 assists, and a 38.7 3 point shooting percentage last season. If paired up with quality drivers like Maxey who is still finding his footing as a passer, Russell could potentially become a more efficient scorer relieved of the burden of having to put the offensive facilitator duties solely on his shoulders.

Fun fact: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is, in fact, one of those eight players too. Small world.

I have long held onto the belief that the 76ers need to find an elite passer to truly optimize Embiid’s offensive ceiling. Too often did he get the ball well outside of the paint on opening night versus the Pelicans and had to settle for a few more low percentage shots than one would like as a result. Watching Maxey cook in the very same game started to ease my concerns but only somewhat. Even if Maxey has what it take to become a starter, right now, he’s an exciting, soon-to-be-21-year-old sparkplug who himself could benefit from a few well placed passes.

Thus, I restate my assetion: to truly reach their offensive ceiling, the Philadelphia 76ers need to land an experienced point guard with a complementary set of skills to both Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid. A though ask? You bet, but certainly not impossible.