The Philadelphia 76ers have cooled down a bit since racking up four straight dubs to start their campaign, but a 5-3 win-loss card, given what this team has had to deal with, is far from a concerning record at this juncture. The team is still in good shape, and a huge chunk of the credit goes to Tyrese Maxey, who has certainly played his way into the MVP discourse early on.
Maxey is easily having his best season yet as a pro in his sixth year. Averaging 33.5 points and 8.5 assists per outing on 47.8 percent shooting from the field, which includes a piping hot 47.9 percent success rate from three-point territory, he has been having a field day on a nightly basis. However, if there is a major concern with him, it is the fact that he is averaging 41.3 minutes per contest.
That mark leads the league by a long shot, and interestingly enough, both VJ Edgecombe and Kelly Oubre Jr. are second and fourth, respectively, in minutes per game. Nick Nurse has doubled down on letting Maxey run the show, but the frequency to which he and his staff have been doing it is already teetering toward history.
And no, that is not a good thing.
The 76ers are pushing Tyrese Maxey way too hard to start the season
Maxey’s 41.3 minutes per game is the highest mark in the NBA in that regard since more than a decade ago, when Monta Ellis normed the same numbers per outing during the 2009-10 season.
It is as clear as day that Nurse is playing Maxey way too many minutes. While he has been just fine in handling his increased workload thus far, it is definitely far from a sustainable design, as Maxey himself has had injuries just last season.
With Jared McCain having already made a successful return from injury, the 76ers have no more reason to keep pushing Maxey’s minutes to the extremes. They also have the option to trot out Quentin Grimes as a nominal point guard as they ease the sophomore back into action, which should allow them to shave away some minutes from Maxey.
The 76ers are all too familiar when it comes to dealing with glaring injury risks, and while Tyrese Maxey is far from being tabbed as touting such dangerous chances, the coaching staff has to be more prudent in allocating minutes in order to best maximize their fighting chance this season.