Philadelphia 76ers guard Tyrese Maxey is one of the top young scorers in the league as he continues to grow. In his third season, he is averaging 23.3 points, and he’s shooting 51.1% from the floor and 45.3% from deep.
A big reason for his efficient play is learning how to read defenses and score in the pick-and-roll. Opposing defenses have tried blitzing Maxey to try to get the ball out of his hands, and they have tried throwing multiple defensive schemes at him. But he always seems to figure out what the teams are doing and how he can respond.
In Monday’s win over the Washington Wizards, Maxey showed his shiftiness and his ability to get to the basket on his way to scoring 28 points to lead the team to a win.
“He’s growing,” coach Doc Rivers told reports. “He really is. You can see it. In the first half, I thought he made some sloppy plays, trying to force it. So much is coming at him. You think about it the last time we went small ball he had 40-whatever points so he’s thinking ‘OK, this could be another one of those nights’ and then in the first half he was struggling. In the first quarter, he was really struggling, and then he kind of gathered himself and figured out how they were going to play him and took advantage of it.”
As the pick-and-roll ball-handler, Maxey is averaging 6.3 points per NBA Stats. That is a solid number for a young guard who is still trying to find his way in the league.
“He’s so fast,” added James Harden. “He’s so fast. I don’t want him to ever, obviously, slow down, but there’s moments where he can go from slow to fast or fast or slow and have a change of pace, and that’s what’s really gonna throw team’s defenses off. Once he gets that change of pace and change of direction, and then once he gets into the paint, he’s really good at finishing.”
Maxey is very good at finishing. Now, the big key will be identifying where his teammates are as well as where the defense will come from. Once he figures that out, he will be extremely tough to stop going downhill.
“Then, the next step is if he’s not able to finish, finding or even knowing before he takes off, knowing where his teammates are, and that that’s knowing where the help defense is coming from himself,” Harden finished. “As a great young player, you got a lot of work to do. A lot of steps to take where he put the work in. He deserves it. So, for him, just keep going.”
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