CAMDEN, N.J. — The Philadelphia 76ers brought in Tyrese Maxey and Paul Reed in the same 2020 draft class. Maxey has taken big steps forward in the league and is reaching superstar levels in his fourth season with the Sixers.
After scoring a career-high 50 points in a win over the Indiana Pacers, Maxey is averaging 28.6 points on 50.5% shooting to begin the 2023-24 season. The question for him becomes not whether he will be an All-Star, but whether he will earn a spot on the All-NBA team.
Reed, who has gone from the 58th pick in 2020 to being in the team’s rotation, has looked at Maxey as an inspiration for his own leaps forward.
“It’s amazing to watch,” Reed said of Maxey on Monday. “It’s real inspirational for a dude like me. We came in together. To see him going crazy like that, it inspires me. It makes me feel like I can go crazy like that, too. I just gotta, you feel me? So it’s like inspiring.”
Reed may not ever reach star levels in the NBA, but he works his tail off on an everyday basis just as Maxey does. Maybe there will be a day for him to take that next step forward in his own development.
[lawrence-related id=86318,86314,86299]