Can We Get Tyrese Some Help Before He Collapses?
AU doesn't want to see 2025-26 Tyrese Maxey to become indistinguishable from 2024-25 Tyrese Maxey.
It’s been an unbelievable start to the year for Tyrese Maxey. He’s averaging over 30 points and nearly eight assists a game with his typically low turnover rate, he’s getting to the line more than he ever has, he’s defending and leading and smiling and everything you’d want from him. For as many positive mini-stories as there have been with this better-than-expected start to the Sixers season, reason No. 1 that the team currently has a winning record is Tyrese, and there’s a pretty big drop to No. 2. He’s been The Guy, and there ain’t many in the league you’d rather have in that spot.
But his production is slowing. It’s not really his fault: He’s got so much on his shoulders right now that it’d almost be impossible for it not to weigh him down a little. Friday night, he did his absolute damnedest — ah, darnedest, sorry Momma Maxey — to drag the shorthanded Sixers over the finish line against the Pistons, but they hit a couple threes too many that we failed to answer with haywire half-court possessions. It was the first time this season that Tyrese finished a game with as many shot attempts as points (31), and also the first with as many turnovers as assists (3). On one critical fourth-quarter transition possession when V.J. Edgecombe and Quentin Grimes both ran to the same corner — leading to Grimes dribbling to nowhere, then throwing the ball away — we got a full-body eye-roll from Maxey that gave me all the worst kinds of 2024-25 flashbacks. The vibes aren’t totally bad yet, but they’re definitely no longer immaculate.
Again, I don’t really blame Tyrese for any of this. But he’s in a tough spot that might not be getting much easier anytime soon. And I’m getting a little worried about how long he’s gonna be able to hold up.
Maxey may currently be top 10 in both points and assists per game, but the two categories where he’s No. 1 with a bullet are field goals attempted (23.3 per game) and minutes played (40.4). He’s closer to 2005 Allen Iverson in those stats than he is to anyone else in the league right now. That’s, uh, not what you want: Like Iverson, Maxey is a warrior with a ceaseless motor and impressive durability, but it’s hard for any player to stay both productive and efficient bearing that kind of load. The phrase “ran out of gas” has already come up in conjunction with his name far more times this season than I would have liked.
Optimally, he wouldn’t have to be going pedal-to-the-medal quite so hard so often this year. And that was supposed to be part of the whole deal with this guard-flooded Sixers team: When you have three other young, high-ceiling, ball-handling guards on the roster, shouldn’t that mean Tyrese can kick back a little more often? But it hasn’t quite been that simple. After a scorching start to the season, Edgecombe has largely shown the rawness and limitations we fully expected him to have as a rookie; it’s fine for his long-term outlook, but you can’t really count on him for too much offense right now. Grimes has his moments but is still better used as a spot-up shooter and secondary creator than as anything particularly point-guardy — you don’t really want that guy driving into traffic any more than necessary. And Jared McCain is still struggling to find his legs and his rhythm after a year on the sidelines (and is now back in Delaware with the Blue Coats); he should help the most when he’s back in full effect, but it may be closer to Hanukkah than Thanksgiving before he starts to look like that guy again. We basically have to play Tyrese close to 40 minutes a night to have any shot of winning against most half-decent teams in the Association right now.
Meanwhile, the team’s overall health keeps moving in the wrong direction. After an up-and-down but largely tragedy-free first few weeks of the season, Joel Embiid had his first two unscheduled absences of the year this week with knee soreness — a good reminder that his season, and ours by extension, is forever hanging on by a ligament or two. Kelly Oubre Jr., the only guy pushing Tyrese for two-way team MVP this season, left in the second quarter Froday night with a knee something, I guess we’ll see him when we see him. Paul George is forever two games away from being two games away. Dominick Barlow is back, at least, seemingly with both arms whole and attached to the rest of his body, but it’s still pretty slim pickings in the Sixers front court at this point.
Some folks on Sixers Twitter Bluesky bemoaned the L last night against a similarly injury stricken Pistons team, calling it an inexcusable loss, maybe the worst of the season. I guess — it certainly wasn’t a good one — but I also couldn’t get too too mad about it. Yes, the Pistons were stripped to the studs, but we weren’t much fuller: With Embiid, George and Oubre all out, we officially have no frontcourt players who are even the slightest bit of an offensive threat in a half-court set, no one who can run a pick-and-roll with Maxey and be any kind of credible threat as either a roller or a popper. Their guards may be explosive, but it doesn’t matter much without the offense being able to pull off basic actions to get the fuse lit.
And I just hate to see Maxey put upon like this. He was so great to start this season, set such a positive tone for how things would be this year after a 2024-25 campaign that was lost before it began. Even with some tough Ls now on their resumé, the Sixers still have three-and-a-half times as many wins as they did to this point in the season last year. But that doesn’t mean we’ve totally escaped the abyss; right now Maxey might be the only thing left keeping us from falling back into it. And not even he can stay fighting the good fight forever: Eventually, the tough shooting nights compound on one another, especially as the frustrating losses mount, and soon enough you’re in Thaddeus Young territory, asking Brett Brown what am I doing here and do I really even have to with all this.
So, get well soon Kelly. Hope next week is better than this week, Joel. Take your time, but hurry up Paul George. We need reinforcements to help out our beautiful boy while the light of this above-.500 start is still shining on him. Once things get too dark there, it’s gonna be pretty tough to still tell the difference between last season and this one.
Andrew Unterberger writes for The Rights To Ricky Sanchez, as part of the ‘If Not, Pick Will Convey as Two Second-Rounders’ section of the site. You can follow Andrew on Twitter @AUGetoffmygold and can also read him at Billboard.