What Does the Labaron Philon Jr. Pick Mean for Tyrese Maxey (And the Team's Direction in General)?
Spike wonders if the next few years are just about keeping Max from getting too Mad.
Mike mentioned on our NBA Draft night podcast that after drafting Labaron Philon Jr. (who was #2 on my YouTube Big Board) with the 22nd pick, he believes there’s a real possibility that the Sixers trade Tyrese Maxey.
Now let’s put aside the “Mike said this” part of it, because we all know Mike was being emotional, and while I do believe he believed it when he said it, he’ll likely be much more measured on the next episode.
But it did get me thinking about what the next three years of the Sixers are really about, assuming that Joel Embiid isn’t going anywhere.
The first instinct is to say “well let the young players grow.” But as of now, there are not really many substantial young players on the Sixers. There is VJ Edgecombe, absolutely. But the minute you get past him, we’re in Barlow and Edwards territory. And while we hope both of those guys get better, the improvement of those guys cannot be what the team is about over the next couple of years.
And Tyrese Maxey… well, he’s not that young. He’s young in the grand scheme of things of course, and he’s got a long career ahead of him, but he’s in his prime. He’s on his second contract, was All-Third Team NBA, and is now firmly past the “watch him grow” phase.
So the next couple of years might just be about getting through them.
And that’s where we get to Philon. Because if the team isn’t considering trading Maxey (I don’t think they are), then the next couple of years has to be about making Tyrese Maxey’s life easy and fun enough that he doesn’t notice they have no chance of competing for a title at the moment and doesn’t get antsy and want to leave. Make Maxey like coming to work every day.
One way the Sixers can do this, is by not forcing him to play 43 minutes a game because the Sixers do not have anyone else who is capable of being a primary ball handler. While you could look at the Philon pick and say “well that’s a guy who can’t play with Maxey so they must be moving Maxey,” I think you can also look at it and say “that’s a guy who probably can’t play with Maxey, so Maxey gets to sit on the bench for 16 minutes a night.”
Team Ricky
Here’s our draft night pod. It’s a doozie.
Team Non Ricky
Here’s Sixers Adam’s annual free agency primer.
KOC was on my WIP show to talk about Philon.
