Tyrese Maxey is embracing a creator role in Philadelphia
James Harden is no longer a Philadelphia 76er, so the team has been left without a "true" point guard. Or maybe they haven't.
Tyrese Maxey — who was recently named Eastern Conference Player of the Week — is quickly evolving as a distributor.
Maxey is improving his creation abilities in a few ways — one of them being that he's had the ball in his hands an awful lot. Through three games, he leads the NBA in touches.
And what he's doing when he does have the ball in his hands looks considerably different than it has in years past. Maxey is averaging 65.3 passes per game, according to NBA.com, a sizable leap from the 48.9 passes per game he averaged last season.
They're not just passes in the flow of the offense, either. He's fully getting his teammates involved, evidenced by the fact he's recorded seven or more assists twice in three games. Last season, he accomplished that feat four times all season (60 games.)
Becoming a good passer isn't always flashy. Sometimes, it's just about making the pass that's right in front of you, like he did here (okay, there's a little flash here.)
And here:
Maxey's uptick in creation has certainly not limited the areas of his game that he was already elite in, though, like three-point shooting. He proved himself as an elite distance shooter long ago, so while his 58% shooting from deep will surely come back down to earth, it likely won't dip that much, considering Maxey has comfortably shot over 40% from three throughout his career.
Philadelphia's ceiling raises significantly if Maxey can continue to distribute at the rate he is right now — or even something close to it. Finding a balance between the high-octane scoring Maxey is capable of and the distribution chops he's showing early in the season could take Maxey's game to a new level.
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