Sixers

It’s Not that Tyrese Maxey is Scoring, it’s HOW He’s Scoring that’s Insanely Impressive

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Mar 24th, 2022 · 10:02 AM EDT

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The Sixers beat the Lakers without LeBron and AD on the road Wednesday night. I pulled an Angelo Cataldi and fell asleep before the game was over, but I have a six month old daughter and a three-year old daughter and it was a West Coast game, so that’s my excuse.

But we can still talk about the game, and even though Joel Embiid led the way again for the Sixers, I want to focus on Tyrese Maxey, because his evolution this year is incredible:

Tyrese Maxey vs. Lakers

8-14 (3-5 from three), five rebounds, seven assists, eight points in the fourth quarter pic.twitter.com/OhWghoqbNN

— Kevin Kinkead (@Kevin_Kinkead) March 24, 2022

It’s not that he’s scoring, it’s the way he’s scoring, right?

I put all eight made baskets in that video clip, and this is what they are:

1. transition catch-and-shoot corner three
2. slip screen right-handed drive to bucket
3. takes defender off dribble, right-handed drive to bucket
4. attacks close out, pull-up baseline jumper
5. pick and roll right-handed drive into off-foot floater
6. straight-on pull-up three pointer
7. high pick and roll, takes big to the rack with right hand
8. pick and roll pull-up three

Those last three are the most impressive to me. Super-high IQ basketball plays. Basket #6 on that list, the Sixers set up a double drag/high double stagger. Wenyen Gabriel is so far off and nobody steps up, so Maxey simply just pulls up and fires:

See the drop, recognize the space, pull up and fire.

Basket #7 is similar. With Malik Monk playing super-high in anticipation of the Embiid screen, Maxey just rounds the corner and has Dwight Howard in space, so he takes him right to the rack:

Even with weakside help, Maxey just kisses that one off the glass. Pretty shot.

Basket #8 then is beautiful. Embiid screens Austin Reaves, who goes over, but with Dwight in drop coverage, Maxey decides that he’s got enough space to pull-up and fire from three, even with the defender trying to push him off the line:

That’s high level stuff there. Most guys are going to attack drop coverage when a guard goes over a screen, but Embiid does a really nice job of obstructing Reaves, to the point where Maxey says “fuck it, I’m just gonna shoot the three.”

Mr. Crockpot at The Painted Lines pulled some Maxey numbers, and they are pretty gnarly:

“Over the last 15 games, Maxey has been unreal in the second half. 55.9% from the field (52/93), 73.3 TS%, 54.8% from 3 (23/42), 30/32 from the line, +61, 11.5 NET, 2.38 AST/TO.”

It’s been really fun to watch. What a transformation in year two. He’s doing all kinds of high-level modern-day NBA stuff. Sprinting to the corner in transition. Catch-and-shoot threes. Fewer floaters, more driving to the rack. The Sixers coaching staff deserves a ton of credit for Maxey’s development.