September 16, 2026
Colleen Claggett/for PhillyVoice
Tyrese Maxey, the No. 21 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, was the central figure of a successful recruitment of LeBron James.
Welcome to PhillyVoice's series of Sixers player previews ahead of the 2026-27 season.
After two years of volatility, Sixers fans entered this offseason teetering on apathy. Then came new Sixers President of Basketball Operations Mike Gansey, the architect of what became a dream summer. Gansey traded Paul George away, landing five-time All-Star Jaylen Brown from the Boston Celtics. As Gansey accumulated depth around Brown, Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe, the door opened for an unfathomable addition.
LeBron James is a member of the Sixers, rounding out one of the most talented starting lineups in recent NBA history. And suddenly, the Sixers have cultivated more local and national interest than ever before. Games are not won on paper, but the Sixers are built to be full-blown championship contenders for however long James remains in Philadelphia.
As Sixers Media Day on Sept. 28 nears, our player preview series will focus on two key questions surrounding each member of the team's 14-player standard roster.
Up next: Tyrese Maxey, whose ascent from late first-round pick to franchise cornerstone reached another level this summer when he led a successful recruitment of the NBA's all-time leading scorer. Maxey averaged 28.3 points per game in his sixth NBA season, earning his first All-NBA honor in the process. But after three years of being on the ball as much as nearly any player in the league, Maxey is about to see his role change. How much different will things look for the soon-to-be 26-year-old?
SIXERS PLAYER PREVIEWS
Joel Embiid | Labaron Philon Jr. | Dean Wade
Dominick Barlow | Adem Bona | Tyrese Maxey
Just about every member of the Sixers will benefit from teaming with James, a force multiplier of epic proportions. But Maxey stands out as the one with a chance to form a truly brilliant partnership with a player whose history of rapports with star guards is notable. Maxey grew up a Dwyane Wade fan, but he probably has more similarities to Kyrie Irving given his three-point shooting prowess.
James has long tortured defenses with screening actions involving guards. Typically, a smaller guard has screened for James, forcing an opposing defense to choose between leaving a shooter wide open to put two on James, giving James a clear path to drive or ceding a switch, at which point James could bully a guard in the post or on his way downhill.
Maxey has been a willing screener at times in the NBA, but James and Jaylen Brown are both much more deserving of Maxey's screens than any forward he has ever played with before. On the other hand, he has been a pick-and-roll ball-handler an enormous number of times, and as he has continued to improve defenses have become more comfortable blitzing him to get the ball out of his hands and live with the results. Now, if James is the screener, defenses will have to think very hard about letting him become a 4-on-3 playmaker by taking Maxey out of the action:
LeBron James will be the best short-roll and 4-on-3 passer in the NBA on the Sixers. He is going to have many opportunities to find his teammates in advantage situations: pic.twitter.com/zUY5L77i3m
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) July 25, 2026
Aside from their potential two-man work, James has the chance to make a pronounced impact on Maxey's efficiency. Tasked with playing on the ball as much as possible over the last three years, Maxey has not been able to show off that he is one of the most lethal off-ball guards in the entire NBA.
Maxey is an elite catch-and-shoot player from beyond the arc, and he is finally going to have those opportunities in bulk again playing alongside James, an all-time drive-and-kick player likely to serve as this team's primary playmaker. Maxey will be weaponized as a movement shooter; he may not be Stephen Curry but his off-ball movement around screens will prompt a chain reaction which opens up easier scoring chances for the Sixers.
There is no question Maxey will still have the ball in his hands a lot, and there will probably be many nights in which his role ends up resembling what it has been over the last three years under Sixers head coach Nick Nurse. But when the Sixers are whole – and particularly when James is around – Maxey has a chance to diversify his methods of attack offensively. That should be quite valuable.
SIXERS FILM STUDIES
Jaylen Brown's strengths | Jaylen Brown's weaknesses
Anfernee Simons | Dean Wade | Ariel Hukporti
Some have speculated that no member of the Sixers will log a significant workload in terms of minutes. And while it may be true that nobody reaches Maxey's NBA-high 38.0 minutes per game, to argue that Nurse will take his foot off the gas with his best players because he can is to misunderstand his philosophy.
So, yes, Maxey may not lead the NBA in minutes per game next season. But with James and Embiid likely to be in and out of the lineup on a fairly regular basis, Maxey, Edgecombe and Brown loom as the true everyday cornerstones of this rotation, and Nurse is likely to lean on them quite a bit.
Do not expect Maxey to be in the low-30s when it comes to minutes totals, even if there is a case to be made that the Sixers could keep him there and remain competitive for 48 minutes. Maxey has never logged fewer than 37.5 minutes per game under Nurse:
| Season | Minutes per game |
| 2023-24 | 37.5 |
| 2024-25 | 37.7 |
| 2025-26 | 38.0 |
This question does not actually pertain to the number of minutes Maxey plays, but the intensity of those minutes. Even if Maxey only goes down to 36 minutes or so per game, how he is used will determine how heavy or light those minutes are. Getting Maxey off the ball more and asking him to handle a lesser playmaking load will help make his minutes lighter, no matter how many minutes he actually logs.
Maxey has marvelous endurance; he never loses his blazing end-to-end speed no matter how many minutes he has accumulated in a game or season. But as seasons have gone on, he has seemed more fatigued and prone to mental lapses. The Sixers have benefitted tremendously from Maxey's outstanding starts to seasons, but need to do a better job of pacing him from start to finish.
SIXERS SIGN LEBRON JAMES
James' decision | Projecting Sixers' rotation | James' impact, on and off the court
