Philadelphia 76ers: Name Tyrese Maxey Eastern Conference Player of the Week

Tyrese Maxey‘s development is nothing short of impressive.

After falling out of the lottery because of his poor 3 point shooting and status as a tweener, Maxey has transformed himself from an occasional sparkplug coming off the bench capable of stealing a W when he’s on, to one of the best young point guards in the Eastern Conference.

He’s doubled his points, rebounds, and assists from his rookie to sophomore season and developed into one of the most efficient scorers in the NBA from the mid-range in.

And over the past week, well, Maxey took his game up one heck of a notch when the Philadelphia 76ers needed him most, to the point where he should be in serious consideration to win his first of many Eastern Conference Player of the Week awards.

Maxey near-single handily kept the Philadelphia 76ers competitive last week.

“(Tyrese) Maxey is really playing at an All-Star level.”

When Rick Carlisle, an NBA Championship-winning head coach, explicitly praises the play of an opposing point guard, especially in a winning effort, you know he’s doing something special.

But soon, Maxey’s brand of special may just become typical.

Whether running the show solo or pairing up with Tobias Harris fresh off a bout with COVID, Maxey averaged 29.3 points, 3.7 rebounds, and four assists per game while hitting 58.3 percent of his shots from the field and an even 50 percent of his shots from beyond the arc over the past three games.

Granted, Maxey only took 16 3 pointers over that tenure, but hey, that’s better than hitting four of those balls instead of eight.

When you look at his numbers versus the rest of the NBA in Week 4 (November 8th-15th), Maxey is averaging the second-most points of any player behind Steph Curry, the18th highest shooting percentage from the field, and tied for 26th highest shooting percentage from 3 with about a dozen other qualifying players.

And quite possibly the most impressive part of it all? Maxey put up those numbers while averaging the most minutes per game of any player in the league at an astounding 40.5.

Those are, like, early Allen Iverson numbers.

Now granted, Maxey may get a knock or two because his team lost all three of the games in question, and he, understandably, had a negative +/- as a result. All three of the previous Eastern Conference winners have had winning records during their respective tenure, but statistically speaking, Maxey falls perfectly in line with those players, even if he had to do it without Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid, Matisse Thybulle, and, at times, Harris too.

In a way, doesn’t that make Maxey’s efforts more impressive?

Once upon a time, there was genuine debate among Philadelphia 76ers fans over whether or not Tyrese Maxey deserved a spot in the team’s future long-term. His efficiency numbers weren’t great, his defensive was positionally average, and his errant deep ball accuracy was a questionable fit for the modern NBA. But now, Maxey might just be the second most popular player on the Sixers’ roster, right up there with “The Process,” himself, Joel Embiid. Even if he’s ultimately spurned for the Eastern Conference Player of the Week this week, there are literally hundreds of weeks left on his NBA career, so I imagine he’ll earn the honor sooner than later.