76ers' Joel Embiid Wants Tyrese Maxey to be More Aggressive After James Harden Trade
Tyrese Maxey has taken on the role of point guard in the wake of James Harden's trade to the Los Angeles Clippers and has handled it with aplomb, averaging career highs in points (26.2 PPG), assists (6.6 APG) and rebounds (5.2 RPG) while shooting a cool 47.1 percent from three through five games.
But his coaches and teammates believe he's capable of even more. Reigning MVP Joel Embiid told reporters after the 76ers' win against the Phoenix Suns on Saturday that it's just a matter of Maxey being more aggressive:
"I told him we got a lot of plays that we want to run, but he doesn't have to run all those plays. There's so many times where there's space, and in those situations, you don't have to run the play just because we called the play for somebody or whatever just to run the play for the offense. If you see the space, attack because you're going to create the same look anyway. Either he's going to score, the defense is gonna collapse, and somebody is gonna be wide open."
Much has been made about the potential of the Sixers hunting for another star with the assets they received in the Harden trade. But it's clear that they already have one star sidekick for Embiid in Maxey, whose speed and ability to get to the basket at will while also operating as an elite perimeter shooter has made him a dynamo on offense.
Still, Maxey's role has yet again expanded in the absence of Harden, and he's still learning the balance between being a playmaker and scoring threat.
"He's gotta not get into those moments where he's not being more aggressive," head coach Nick Nurse told reporters. "I'm not criticizing him. I'm just trying to keep imploring that he needs to be more aggressive. He's too good beating people off the dribble. He's too good a shooter to not take more chances—his own chances—so we're going to keep working on that a little bit."
