The Philadelphia 76ers have gone up and down as of late with their mixed performances, but they are still in a good position in the early going. Now touting a 9-6 win-loss card after an impressive win on the road on the second night of a back-to-back against the Bucks, the team is in a deadlock for fifth place in the East, with only one game separating them from the second seed.
Tyrese Maxey has been awe-inspiring for the 76ers so far this season, putting up MVP-caliber numbers night in and out. However, despite the All-Star making the superstar leap, fans cannot help but be concerned about how much the coaching staff has been exerting him all season long.
The sixth-year guard is currently averaging 40.7 minutes per outing, which easily leads the NBA. He is registering more than three full minutes on the average compared to the second-leading minutes getter in the league, who is his teammate, VJ Edgecombe. Nick Nurse is trying to extract as much as he could from his best player, and he is definitely not shying away from exposing him on the floor as much as possible.
Nick Nurse ignores 76ers fans anew with stern commitment to Tyrese Maxey
Having said that, fans want Maxey’s minutes to be reduced to some degree for health reasons. However, it seems like the veteran coach himself is not inclined on yielding to that demand.
In a recent exchange, Nurse was asked about Maxey’s lofty minutes on a nightly basis, to which he seemed to point out that the current status quo will remain that way moving forward.
“It’s evident how much we need him. The minutes are going to be there. They are going to be at around 40. He’s got to carry the load. That’s what we ask him to do, and he’s figured it out.”
Maxey’s sheer individual brilliance so far this season has incentivized the coaching staff to give him as many minutes as he could handle, and this response from Nurse only validates it. The 76ers are heavily relying on Maxey to carry them on the offensive end, especially with Joel Embiid still on his usual ”in-and-out of the lineup” stretches, and his minutes are reflective of that.
Still, it should be argued that the 76ers are more equipped than before to handle a prospective reduction of the minutes Maxey has been getting. Hence, this one is not only a matter of necessity, but also of desire. That is the part where fans would like to have a bit of a change.
Hopefully, the coaching staff will be able to strike a better balance of maximizing the team’s chances to win games and keeping the stars, especially Tyrese Maxey, as fresh as he can be. This franchise is incredibly familiar with burnout-related setbacks, so the ball is in their court to temper those risks.