As soon as it became clear that Joel Embiid and Paul George would be absent for the beginning of the 2024-25 season, the Sixers' first few opponents on the schedule knew where to turn their attention to: Tyrese Maxey.
Maxey, the NBA's reigning Most Improved Player Award winner entering his fifth NBA season — also coming off his first career All-Star nod in 2023-24 — would be the center of everything the Sixers did on offense for the time being. Calling Maxey the Sixers' focal point would not do it justice, it is even more significant than that. Maxey is the team's only active player capable of consistently creating for themself and their teammates.
Luckily, Maxey entered the season with a bit of experience in that department. When Embiid missed two months of action late in the 2023-24 regular season with a meniscus injury, Maxey was forced into the role of a primary option. There were bumps along the way, and his overall efficiency numbers took dives, but he felt it was an informative experience.
"Now, they had a scouting report on me," Maxey said of that period at Sixers Media Day last month. "They tried to base their defense around me to try to make me do things that I didn't like to do... I didn't see traps in high school, I didn't see box-and-ones in high school, I definitely didn't see them in college. So my first time seeing them was in the NBA, the highest level of basketball. We didn't want to be without Joel during that time, but I think it made me into a better player."
If Sixers head coach Nick Nurse was told that Maxey would lead the entire NBA in field goal attempts after two games, Nurse would be over the moon. From the first day of Nurse's time coaching Maxey last fall, he has constantly stressed that no shot total is too high for Maxey. Nurse has implored his point guard to be as aggressive as possible as both a scorer and shooter.
It may be largely out of necessity, but Maxey has done that in each of the first two games of the young season. A problem has arisen, though: the shots are not going in.
Maxey has taken 54 field goal attempts through two games. The next-closest player is Minnesota's Anthony Edwards, who has attempted 49 shots. But of the 50 players who have taken at least 25 shot attempts so far this season, Maxey ranks 48th in field goal percentage. He has only made 16 shots, posting a 29.6 field goal percentage.
After making just 10 of his 31 shots in the Sixers' season-opening loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, Maxey and Nurse agreed that the shot selection was largely in line with his usual, aggressive self — even if his aggression had been turned up a few notches — and that his poor shooting line was just the product of unlucky bounces on shots that Maxey usually makes.
On Friday night, though, Maxey posted an even worse shooting line, going 6-of-23 from the field and 2-of-12 from beyond the arc in a brutal road loss to the Toronto Raptors. The Sixers have played two games without two future Hall of Fame inductees, and the sky is already falling for some, with many critics pointing fingers at Maxey.
MORE: Raptors 115, Sixers 107
Nobody appeared worried about Maxey whatsoever after Wednesday night's loss to the Bucks, but his struggles being amplified in a Toronto game that should have netted the Sixers an easy win has caused quite a stir.
We know Maxey has not lost skill or ability in the last six months. So is something wrong with Maxey's approach, or is this just a bad two-game sample under difficult circumstances?
The answer is probably a bit of both. Maxey has had the weight of the world on his shoulders while averaging about 40 minutes per game in the first two games of the season. It is incredibly difficult to ramp up from a handful of stretches of action in the preseason to being a team's lone reliable source of offense for 40 out of 48 minutes twice in a row.
Any time Maxey leads the charge without Embiid and George, he will be asked to handle this enormous burden. The Sixers are a team comprised of its three stars and players who thrive in the background, which means when the stars are not available, there are not clear options to ascend in the shot creation pecking order (Kelly Oubre Jr. is the only Sixers role player capable of scaling up his offensive role, and Oubre did put together a strong showing in Toronto, posting 28 points on 9-of-17 shooting from the field).
So right off the bat, Maxey is in an enormously difficult predicament. At best, he is sharing the floor with one other player capable of creating offense. He cannot take a possession off, he cannot be used as a decoy and he cannot relent. And, because he is surrounded by players who command much less attention from opposing defenses, his self-creation burden does not just increase in volume, but also in degree of difficulty: it is much, much harder to go and get a bucket when there are 10 eyes focused on you.
Still, Maxey's approach has not been optimal during these two games. His greatest attribute might be his end-to-end speed, but he admitted after Wednesday night's loss to Milwaukee that he might have been playing too fast, pushing the pace too much. A play like this, particularly with Brook Lopez protecting the rim, is simply ill-advised:
In Toronto, Maxey continued to appear like someone who is pressing, not someone who is reading defenses and making decisions accordingly:
If there is one trend from Maxey's first pair of games that could be troubling, it is the volume of shots he missed short. It could be nothing — coincidences happen — but missing shots short is generally considered a sign of fatigue. Take a look at all of these short misses:
It is hard to imagine these are all results of Maxey being tired when the season has just gotten underway. But at the very least, it is something to file away for the time being — as is the fact that Maxey did suffer a right thumb contusion five days before the beginning of the regular season.
It would be silly to put all of the blame on Maxey: the Sixers are the ones who assembled a roster built around a trio of stars which includes two players infamously prone to missing time which severely lacks offensive juice in their absences. When Embiid, George and Maxey share the floor, the Sixers' vision will be on full display. But right now, they are experiencing one of the most dangerous scenarios they could have envisioned given the form of roster construction.
Maxey is still a marvelous talent with a terrific work ethic who is primed for a strong season. The eventual returns of Embiid and George will do him plenty of favors, but he will also be much better than this when operating as the team's primary scorer down the line. If anything, his two-game slump to open 2024-25 is an indictment on the lack of shot creation the Sixers accumulated to surround their All-Stars.
Embiid and George will both miss the Sixers' road game against the Indiana Pacers on Sunday afternoon, and there could be updates coming regarding each one's status soon after. The sooner the better for Maxey, for the Sixers and for everybody watching.
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