Sixers Player of the Week: Rookie Tyrese Maxey shines

It’s hard to argue that Tyrese Maxey isn’t the Philadelphia 76ers’ player of the week.

With half the Philadelphia 76ers‘ roster missing this past week because of the COVID-19 outbreak, head coach Doc Rivers had to rely on his rookies during the games more than he probably would have liked to. Still, one rookie stood out above the rest and that was Tyrese Maxey, who is the player of the week.

Sixers’ Player of the Week: Maxey

Maxey’s performance in the loss to the Denver Nugget’s is easily the most impressive game by any rookie this season so far. He had 39 points, seven rebounds, six assists, two steals, two turnovers, and three fouls, while going 18-33 from the field and 3-8 from the 3-point line. While this performance definitely put him over the top to win this award, the work he put in the rest of the week was impressive as well.

In the defeat against the Atlanta Hawks, Maxey came back down to earth. He ended the game 15 points, six rebounds, four assists, two blocks, two turnovers, and one foul, while making 7-14 from the floor, 0-1 from downtown, and 1-1 foul shot.

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The Sixers barely won against the Miami Heat in the first matchup, in thanks to Joel Embiid‘s monster game (we’ll get to that later). However, Maxey wasn’t a non-factor in the game. He finished 16 points, three rebounds, eight assists, one steal, one turnover, and six fouls. He shot 7-18 on his field goals, 1-6 from the arc and 1-3 from the free throw line. This was his worst shooting performance of the week.

In the second win against the Heat, Maxey had another solid performance. He had 15 points, one rebound, one assist, one steal, two turnovers, and two fouls, while converting 60.0 percent of his 10 shots, 33.3 percent from deep, and 100.0 percent of his free throws.

Honorable Mention

There are some worthy candidates for this honorable mention. Isaiah Joe and Shake Milton deserve a shoutout, but it goes to Embiid. In the first game against the Heat, he finished with 45 points, 16 rebounds, and five steals, while also taking over the game down the stretch. In three games this past week, he averaged 26.0 points, 10.6 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 2.0 steals, 0.7 blocks, 3.3 turnovers, and 1.7 fouls.

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Maxey has definitely proven that he deserves this award and more playing time moving forward with the Philadelphia 76ers. This past week, he’s averaged 21.3 points, 4.3 rebounds, 4.8 assists, 1.0 steals, 0.5 blocks, 1.8 turnovers, and 3.0 fouls.