When it comes to the Philadelphia 76ers, the focus is mostly on their star duo of Joel Embiid and James Harden as they are the most established. Embiid is one of the best players in the league regardless of position and Harden is on his way to the Hall of Fame.
However, there is another rising star on the roster in the form of Tyrese Maxey who has been impressive as ever in his first two seasons.
In his second season, Maxey averaged 17.5 points and 4.3 assists while shooting 42.7% from deep. In 51 games before the All-Star break, he was the team’s point guard amid the Ben Simmons saga and he stepped up to the plate as he averaged 16.9 points and 4.6 assists.
Then the Harden trade happened and h was moved to shooting guard at the break. In 24 games after the break, he averaged 18.7 points while shooting 48% from deep and 52.3% from the floor as he once again stepped up to the challenge.
HoopsHype put together their ranking of the top 25 shooting guards in the NBA and Maxey comes in ranked 9th on the list:
The fact that in his age-21 campaign, Maxey was able to elevate his game from the regular season to the tune of 20.8 points and 3.9 assists over 12 games on 48.4 percent shooting (37.7 percent from deep) is extremely promising with regards to his future and speaks to his confidence as a player.
An underrated passer, we expect big things from Maxey in 2022-23, hence, him cracking our list at No. 9.
Maxey and the Sixers will look to make a deep playoff run and chase the Larry O’Brien trophy in the 2022-23 season. Now that the young guard out of Kentucky has had a full offseason to train and work with Harden, he will be able to grow his game and continue to gain comfort next to The Beard which should make the Sixers even better for the future.
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Story originally appeared on Sixers Wire