FORT COLLINS, Colo. — The Philadelphia 76ers are dealing with a big issue at point guard as they deal with the James Harden saga. While The Beard is likely to show up at training camp in Colorado, there is not a great chance he will be the most engaged player on the floor.
With Harden not likely to cooperate, the responsibility of handling the ball falls on the other guards. Most notably Tyrese Maxey, De’Anthony Melton, and Patrick Beverley. Those three will have the ball in their hands often.
Maxey is known mostly for his scoring, but he has played point guard in his basketball life, and he continues to find a balance between playmaking and scoring on offense.
“One thing that I really got to figure out is since I had the ball so much today (Tuesday) in practice, like I gotta be comfortable with making certain decisions,” Maxey explained. “Like ‘OK, it’s my turn to score.’ You know what I’m saying? Managing the game. I think today was really good.”
Maxey is going to have to provide a little bit of everything on the offensive end as he will have to score, run the offense and make plays for others. He did so on Tuesday.
“I got into the paint,” Maxey added. “I got a lot of guys open 3s, and some pocket passes with P-Reed and Mo Bamba, guys like that lobs and stuff. So it’s pretty fun. It was cool. It’s gonna be a learning experience. I did it all when I was in high school. I did all before that and then Kentucky, I went to do something different here. I did so many different things now and in the fourth year that I’m in, I’m good. I’m happy.”
As for coach Nick Nurse and how he is going to handle getting his guys ready for the season, he is looking to put the ball in each of their hands in practice and get them the reps they need.
“So a lot of times with last year, Tyrese and D-Melt played together, right?” said Nurse. “So we’ve got to split them up a little bit and on teams in practice. Same with Pat Bev. We want them to be the primary ball-handler on their team. Let’s say we’re in scrimmages, we usually have three teams, it’d be good to put each one of them.”
That is what training camp is for. To work out kinks such as this one as Philadelphia figures out the Harden saga. Maxey, Melton and Beverley will have to do more on offense.
“Just to increase the reps that they’re getting,” Nurse added. “That’s it really, you know? They just got to get that they just got to get the reps of bringing it up the floor with their team. Are they going to attack in the attack phase of our offense? Or are they going to pull back and get us into some sort of sort of execution? And if so, what is that?”
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