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Mar 1, 2026; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Philadelphia 76ers guard Tyrese Maxey (0) drives to the basket during the first half against the Boston Celtics at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Paul Rutherford-Imagn Images Paul Rutherford-Imagn Images

Sixers Star Should Now Be An All-NBA Lock

Originally posted on Philadelphia 76ers on SI
By Bryan Toporek | Last updated Apr 4, 2026 6:00 AM ET

When Tyrese Maxey suffered a finger injury in early March after having played only 61 games, it seemed as though his All-NBA chances might be at risk. Had he not returned quickly enough, he would have finished below the 65-game minimum, much like Cade Cunningham and Anthony Edwards just became locks to do.

Luckily, Maxey came back a bit earlier than expected. And he played 35 minutes in Friday's 115-103 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, which was his 65th game of the season.

Maxey is now eligible for end-of-season awards such as MVP and the All-NBA teams. He won't be in the MVP conversation this year, but he should now be a lock for his first-ever All-NBA nod. Not only is he deserving as is, but deserving candidates keep dropping like flies.

What's Maxey's All-NBA Case?

Heading into Friday's win, Maxey was averaging a career-high 28.8 points, 6.8 assists, 4.2 rebounds, 3.3 threes and 2.0 steals in a league-leading 38.4 minutes per game this season. He ranked sixth leaguewide in value over replacement player, seventh in box plus/minus, ninth in PER and was in a tie with Donovan Mitchell for eighth in Dunks and Threes' estimated wins. When that many all-encompassing metrics are saying he's a top-10 player this season, it's hard to argue against that, particularly given his raw box-score numbers.

It's not only that Maxey is now the best guard Philadelphia has had since Allen Iverson. It's that he's gone from Joel Embiid's sidekick to Joel Embiid's potential successor, and Embiid seems to be at peace with it.

Embiid spent the last few years calling Maxey "The Franchise," which seemed to be a joke when he was at the peak of his MVP powers. Over the last year, it's proved to be more prophetic.

Maxey's trainer, Drew Hanlen, took the blame for Maxey's subpar 2024-25 season during an appearance on Yahoo Sports' The Kevin O'Connor Show.

Drew Hanlen on Tyrese Maxey

"I messed up [in 2024] with Tyrese because, the whole summer, we prepared for him to be better in a two-man game with Joel."

"[Maxey] wasn't able to carry his team to wins because he wasn't prepared enough ... we didn't train him to be the #1" pic.twitter.com/VjDl4E8n3V
— Erin Grugan (@eringrugan) February 18, 2026

This past offseason, Hanlen and Maxey clearly rectified that. He came into this season with a plan of attack for the games that Embiid and/or Paul George would inevitably miss.

Maxey has been in attack mode since the opening tip of Game 1, and it hasn't stopped yet. He's the single biggest reason why the Sixers are currently sitting sixth in the Eastern Conference with roughly one week left in the regular season.

Maxey was named an All-Star starter for the first time this year, which is at least a rough approximation of his standing in the league this season. If he was a top-10-ish player at the midway point of the season, not much changed over the past month. If anything, it only became more clear-cut given the number of players who are no longer in contention for end-of-season awards at all.

The 65-game rule's reign of terror

Stephen Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo and LeBron James played nowhere near enough games to be in MVP or All-NBA consideration. The same goes for Jayson Tatum, who just recently returned from the Achilles injury that he suffered in last year's playoffs, and Jalen Williams, who dealt with a nagging hamstring injury this year.

Between those five and Tyrese Haliburton, who remains out with a torn Achilles, five of last year's 15 All-NBA spots were already open heading into this week. The 65-game rule just claimed two more victims over the past few days, and it's trying to take down a third.

Cunningham, who has played 61 games this season, has been out since mid-March and was just ruled out for at least another week. The regular season ends next Sunday, so he's now guaranteed to finish below 65 games. The same goes for Edwards, who missed his 17th game Thursday and had another game not count for awards purposes since he played only three minutes.

That means eight of the 15 All-NBA spots from last season are guaranteed to turn over. And depending on an arbitrator's ruling, one of the leading candidates to snag one of those open spots could be out of the running.

Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Dončić, who already has five first-team All-NBA nods in his first seven seasons, was headed for his sixth this year with a league-high 33.5 points along with 8.3 assists, 7.7 rebounds and 4.0 three-pointers per game. That is, until he suffered a hamstring injury in Thursday's blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder—his 64th game of the season.

On Friday, the Lakers announced that Dončić would miss the rest of the regular season with a Grade 2 hamstring strain. Given the severity of the injury, it's unclear what state he'll be in when the playoffs begin in two weeks.

Dončić's playoff readiness—or lack thereof—will be the big story in Lakerland over the next two weeks. But since Dončić is now set to miss the rest of the regular season, he's going to finish exactly one game short of the 65-game threshold.

Dončić's agent, Bill Duffy, told ESPN's Shams Charania that he plans to file an "extraordinary circumstances" challenge since Dončić missed two games this year for the birth of his child.

"Luka missed two games this season for the birth of his second child in Slovenia. His daughter was born on Dec. 4, on another continent, and yet he was back in the United States competing with his team on Dec. 6," Duffy said in a statement.

"Luka has gone to great lengths to show up for his team and this league this season. His record-breaking season deserves to be noted in the history books, despite last night's unfortunate injury and other extraordinary circumstances."

Regardless of what happens with Dončić's appeal, there can only be seven All-NBA holdovers at most from last season. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Donovan Mitchell and Jalen Brunson are locks to repeat, and Nikola Jokić will be as well if he plays 65 games. Evan Mobley, Karl-Anthony Towns and James Harden are no sure things to make the cut again, though.

Maxey has a stronger case than all of them.

Victor Wembanyama, Kawhi Leonard, Kevin Durant, Jalen Johnson and Jamal Murray, among others, all have legitimate All-NBA cases as well. Maxey is more likely to make the All-NBA second team than he is to miss any of the All-NBA teams, though. He has an iron-clad resume and should be even more of a sure thing with both Edwards and Cunningham now out of All-NBA contention.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM.