CAMDEN, N.J.–The Philadelphia 76ers are in the middle of trying to find a rhythm on the offensive end and being able to run an efficient offense, but that’s tough to do at the moment as they work through the injury to James Harden.
The Beard promises to be back sooner rather than later, but in the meantime, that means more pressure remains on Tyrese Maxey to not only run the offense, but to score the ball as well.
The Sixers rely so much on pace in order to run their offense efficiently, and they currently rank 27th in the league in pace which leads to them being 18th in offensive rating. As they wait for Harden to return, the future Hall of Famer has some advice for Maxey to help him run the offense.
“He had maybe, I think two or three games where he kinda struggled scoring a little bit, but he’s getting that attention now as the primary ball-handler to where he has to do things that he can do, but he’s just not used to,” said Harden at practice. “I tell him to stay in that aggressive mentality. If you miss a shot or you miss two shots in a row, you have to have that mentality just to stay on it.”
Maxey did have a rough 3-game stretch where he shot just 29.7% from the floor and 26.1% from deep, but Harden wants him to remain aggressive during this time.
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“Keep being aggressive, keep punching those holes, and then even when you get into the paint, since you are the primary guy, there are going to be guys on you when you get to the paint, there might be two or three guys,” added The Beard. “So if you don’t see the rim, then know, before you attack, know where your guys are, know where your shooters are so when you get to that pain, it’s easy to kick out 3s.”
Due to Maxey’s work ethic, Harden is more than confidence that the young man out of Kentucky will get this down and continue to grow as a player.
“Just those little nuggets, I feel like is the next development for him, and he’s gonna get there just because he’s in it,” Harden added. “You know what I mean? Game by game.”
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