Philadelphia 76ers: 5 New Year’s resolutions for 2021

Sixers New Year’s resolution: Tyrese, expand your game

The early returns on Tyrese Maxey are overwhelmingly positive. He’s a rotation piece — a good rotation piece — and someone the Sixers can rely on to generate offense in the halfcourt. He gets to the rim with ease, his passing has already improved significantly since his days at Kentucky, and he’s a competent defender at the point of attack.

Philadelphia will continue to get good production out of Maxey, and in time, I expect his minutes to increase. That said, in order for Rivers to place his trust in Maxey without reservation, he needs to expand his game. Basically, he needs to shoot 3s.

Maxey shot a shade below 30 percent from deep in college, so his 3-point shot was never a given. That said, he has clean mechanics and feathery touch inside the arc — good indicators of future success behind the 3-point line. He cannot experience that success, however, if he doesn’t shoot them.

Through five games, Maxey is 0-for-5 from beyond the arc. Ideally, he would take more than one per game. They will eventually start falling. Maxey has passed up several open looks in favor of drives to the rim, and while his slashing is valuable to Philadelphia’s offense, defenses will eventually adjust if he poses no reliable threat from deep. He has to shoot them.