The Philadelphia 76ers have had a lot of changes this season and the development of certain players can be lost in the shuffle. However, it’s become impossible to ignore the improvement that Tyrese Maxey has shown this year.
After a rookie year of being in and out of the rotation, Maxey was shoved into a starting point guard role due to the Ben Simmons drama. Most second year guards would have folded under the pressure, but he didn’t.
In fact, he’s shown some of the biggest leaps of any player this season in terms of production and ability. The question becomes how much of a case does he have for the Most Improved Player of the Year award?
Does the Sixers’ Maxey have a legit case for the Most Improved Player of the Year?
The easiest way to show Maxey’s improvement is by just looking at the stats.
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 3/12/2022.
The numbers don’t lie, Maxey has had a big jump in this season. He’s shown flashes of being an All-Star this year and was able to be the primary option on offense during the team’s stretch of COVID-19 this year. On top of that, he’s shown real growth on the defensive and expanding his offensive repertoire.
There are not many players who have shown that level of improvement. The shortlist of players that have shown major growth this year includes Miles Bridges, Dejounte Murray, Anfernee Simons, and Ja Morant. However, Morant is an MVP candidate too so he can probably be excluded from this list.
Each of these players along with Maxey have shown legit jumps in productions, but there’s one major difference Maxey and the rest of this group. Every other player in the race for this award has more years of NBA experience than Maxey.
Second year players haven’t won the award in recent history. In fact since the award was first given out in 1985-86 season, only seven second year players have won the award. The most recent one was Monta Ellis was in the 2006-07 season. The other second year players who have won the award have been Gilbert Arenas, Don MacLean, Rony Seikaly, Kevin Johnson, Kevin Duckworth, and Alvin Robertson.
Is it impossible for Maxey to win the award? No, but recent history isn’t in the Sixers’ guard’s favor and he has legit competition the Most Improved Player award.