Sixers: Pros and cons of starting Tyrese Maxey

Con of the Sixers starting Tyrese Maxey: Second unit suffers

Maxey didn’t play much in the regular season, but by the end of the playoffs, there wasn’t much room for doubt. Maxey was clearly the Sixers’ best reserve player — or, at the very least, the most important reserve player. For all the aforementioned reasons. He can put pressure on the rim, create his own shot, and give the Sixers some semblance of a traditional offense.

Thing is, if Maxey joins the starting five, that leaves the second unit out to dry. Shake Milton averaged 13.0 points per game last season, but he’s even less of a natural point guard than Maxey. In fact, Milton was hardly playable in the postseason, and relying on him, Furkan Korkmaz, and Andre Drummond to lead the second unit offense will predictably fail.

Doc Rivers likes his 10-man rotations, and even more than that, he likes his all-bench groups. Maybe that changes with Simmons out, but there’s no reason to expect it to. We saw a lot of Tobias Harris will the second unit last season. That will no doubt continue, but even Harris can’t salvage groups totally devoid of rim pressure and reliable playmaking.

If the Sixers utilized Maxey as the sixth man, there’s at least some hope for competent offense when Embiid sits. The Sixers can easily stagger Embiid and Maxey to maintain rim pressure, but again, Rivers loves his all-bench groups. We also know Rivers has a very high opinion of Shake Milton, which was often detrimental to Philadelphia’s success last season. It will not help when Milton has to play hero-ball with the backups.

There’s a strong argument to let Maxey cook as the sixth man. Joel Embiid units will always find some measure of success offensively, because he can just put his head down and manufacture points when need be. It’s the non-Embiid groups that will get especially tricky if Maxey isn’t there to kickstart things. I am fully in favor of starting Maxey, but this is at least a consideration. It will be worth monitoring if the second unit’s production stoops too low.