The Philadelphia 76ers have had a good start to the season all things considered, and most of the credit for their encouraging kick-off to the current campaign belongs to Tyrese Maxey, who has been playing at an MVP level. The All-Star guard has undoubtedly looked like a top-five player in the NBA early on, which is a much welcome 180-degree flip from his down year last season.
That said, the 76ers have been relying on him far too much. The sixth year guard is leading the league in minutes per game — and it is not even close. Averaging 40.4 minutes per outing, he is registering three more minutes than the second player on the list, which is actually his own teammate, rookie guard VJ Edgecombe.
Of course, with the 76ers still getting bugged by the injuries, it is difficult for them not to play Maxey as much as they can. The fact that he is averaging 32.5 points and 7.7 assists per game while shooting almost 46 percent from the field and above 41 percent from three-point range also incentivizes the coaching staff to give him such a massive run on the hardwood on a nightly basis.
The 76ers have to find a way to reduce the minutes of Tyrese Maxey
However, as everyone knows, this degree of exertion rarely works and often results to ugly, unintended consequences. As a result, the 76ers should start exploring ways to cut into his minutes.
Nick Nurse has been Thibodeauean in this regard, if not more. While him playing Maxey this much probably has something to do with the 76ers not getting the full version of Joel Embiid just yet (in fact, he is currently sidelined with another minor setback). However, Maxey is bound to get burned out when it matters the most.
Maxey also has some injury history he needs to be cautious about. While he is still young, the last things the 76ers should do is to play with fire and take the injury bug into a tango. Cutting into his minutes is imperative, lest the team increases the risk of their current best player flirting with that doomsday scenario.
The 76ers do have the depth to allow them to reduce Maxey’s minutes, although they have not yet been comfortable doing that. But hopefully, as the season progresses, the coaching staff can find a sustainable way to lighten his workload to preserve him as much as possible.