Sixers: Pros and cons of starting Tyrese Maxey

Pro of the Sixers starting Tyrese Maxey: More traditional offense

While the Sixers were never bad offensively because of Ben Simmons, there were certain sacrifices made to accommodate the 6-foot-10 point guard’s unique style of play. Simmons was often relegated to the dunker’s spot off the ball, and he was almost never involved directly in actions with Joel Embiid — Philadelphia’s main scoring engine.

Simmons’ total avoidance of the 3-point line, coupled with wavering aggression attacking downhill, meant the Sixers’ halfcourt offense was prone to bouts of inconsistency. Things got clunky every now and then. While that will not stop in Simmons’ absence, the Sixers do now have the chance to run a more traditional offense around Embiid.

Just look at some of the training camp footage:

That’s Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid running a real life pick-and-roll. The Simmons-Embiid pick-and-roll was never part of the Sixers’ offense, but Simmons essentially could not run a regular pick-and-roll. He saw some snug P&Rs around the basket once in a blue moon, but Embiid has essentially never had a real pick-and-roll partner outside of Jimmy Butler. For whatever reason, Brett Brown never explored that to the fullest extent.

Now the Sixers can run normal P&Rs with three shooters lining the perimeter. Not with Ben Simmons clogging the dunker’s spot, or with Simmons’ defender sitting 10 feet back on the ball handler. Just… a pick-and-roll. That’s the clearest example of how normal the offense could feel in Simmons’ absence, even if the Sixers lose some punch in transition.

That said, Maxey is fast. He’s no stranger to pushing the tempo and getting out on the fast break. He’s nowhere near the creator for others that Simmons is, and the Sixers’ shooters will miss Simmons, but Maxey will add more dynamism elsewhere. And, broadly speaking, the Sixers will have four capable 3-point shooters next to Embiid on a full-time basis. A nice change of pace.