Young Philadelphia 76ers guard Tyrese Maxey is continuing on with his development and his learning process of being the team’s new starting point guard amid the Ben Simmons saga. It is a tall task to ask of a 20-year old in his second season and he is learning on the job.
Maxey had probably his best game of the young season thus far on Thursday when he had 16 points, six rebounds, and six assists with two blocks in a 110-102 win over the Detroit Pistons. He shot 6-for-8 from the floor and he knocked down both of his triples.
On the downside, he did have four turnovers and that is something he still needs to figure out. Luckily for him, he has a solid support group in Philadelphia.
“It’s just a work in progress,” Maxey said. “It’s the fifth game, stuff is slowing down. I’m figuring out where guys want the ball, trying to find switches or advantages that work for us. So it’s getting a lot better. Like I said the coaching staff and my teammates they’ve been great. They’ve been helping me, they’ve been patient and critiquing me and been hard on me to help me and I really appreciate them.”
The bright side of Maxey’s performance on Thursday is the fact that he was able to bounce back from a tough performance against the New York Knicks. He was able to get over the poor performance, refocus, take the critiquing, and be able to bounce back. That does show some maturity at this level that he learned from his college coach at Kentucky, John Calipari.
“I don’t mind it because I feel like I am a student of the game and like I said I go home watching the film and I study,” Maxey added. “One thing that I am big on is debriefing and once the game is over I think Coach Cal taught me one thing you get 24 hours to grieve. In the NBA, I give myself 12 more hours to grieve cause you never know if you have a back-to-back or not, but get 12 hours to grieve about the game and then you let it go.”
Another thing that has helped Maxey a bit is being able to just get away from basketball when the time calls for it. Being able to go home, play with his dog, call his mom, play some video games, and just be a 20-year old can help him move on from tough games.
“Sometimes you need to get away from the game,” he finished. “I love it. I love it to the highest level, but sometimes just going home and calling my mom, calling my family, checking up on my sister playing volleyball or my older sister who’s a cheerleading coach and playing with my dog and living life.”
Maxey will now get another test when the team hosts Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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