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PHILADELPHIA — On Monday night, as Tyrese Maxey spent 40 minutes slicing through the Los Angeles Clippers, Philadelphia 76ers forward Paul George sat on the bench taking in the show.
He gave the stank face as Maxey hit a defender with a crossover and stepped back and knocked home a 3-pointer. Then, he looked over and tapped the shoulder of his teammate, point guard Kyle Lowry.
“It was a crazy moment,” George told The Athletic. “I looked at Kyle, and I said, ‘Yo, Tyrese really got better.’”
It’s not easy to impress NBA players, especially NBA players who have been to All-Star Games and have been on All-NBA teams. Yet Maxey seems to be crossing that difficult threshold this season. Listening to George gush about the guard’s growth and improvement, even in a season that’s currently only 14 games in, speaks volumes about how good Maxey has been over the first month. And with every 30-point game, every heroic stretch, it’s clear that Maxey’s play is worthy of such emphatic statements.
The 76ers are Tyrese Maxey’s team. Maxey is making early cases to be an All-Star starter in the East and to make the first All-NBA team of his career.
“He’s special,” George told The Athletic. “I thought he had a phenomenal year last year, but it got lost in the season that we had as a team. Because of that, people didn’t really talk about him heading into this season. But, when you watch him just take over games and get us timely buckets, it’s special to see. We’re asking him to do so much. We’re asking him to play a ton of minutes and he’s delivering.
rese in reverse ⏪ pic.twitter.com/Qd9vy8z729
— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) November 20, 2025
“He’s the heart and soul of this team. This is similar to what Allen Iverson once did for the city. He’s our battery, and we’re witnessing one of them ones.”
There’s a season-long celebration of the 2000-01 team, which took a vise grip on Philadelphia, won the Eastern Conference and went to the NBA Finals. Iverson had his league MVP season that year. Larry Brown won Coach of the Year. Former Simon Gratz High School and Temple legend Aaron McKie won Sixth Man of the Year. Their 2025-26 counterparts will spend multiple games this season wearing those 2001 jerseys, but that 2001 team was so special that it will be difficult indeed for anyone or anything to emulate what that team accomplished.
Maxey is averaging 32.5 points per game, which is good for second in the league. He’s averaging 7.8 assists per game, which places him firmly in the top 10 of the league. He’s shooting 42 percent from 3-point range. He’s averaging nearly five rebounds per night, and has defended well for a man who carries all of that responsibility.
George has played all of one game. Jared McCain, the standout rookie from last season, has struggled to gain the rhythm that he established before he missed the remainder of last year with a knee injury. Joel Embiid, the superstar center, has been on a minutes restriction when available. But he’s also missed the last four games because of knee soreness. Starting forward Kelly Oubre Jr. will be out for at least a few weeks after spraining the LCL ligament in his left knee.
These are major players whom the Sixers need to win big. By and large, the Sixers simply have not had most of them at their disposal. And that’s made Maxey’s 40 minutes a night a necessity, despite the risks involved with playing at that volume at the pace the Sixers mostly play at.
“It’s evident how much we need him,” Nurse said. “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.”
Still, Philadelphia is 8-6 despite some of the player-availability constraints it has faced. The issue is that we don’t know if that player availability is going to get significantly better. And if it doesn’t, that’s going to keep an arrow on Maxey that will permeate to the remainder of the NBA. Oubre’s injury was the result of a hyperextension, so the hope is that he will stay healthy once he gets back. He’s usually durable, and he’s playing the best basketball of his career.
George and Embiid are the wild cards, mainly George. Embiid will likely be in and out of the lineup. That makes George very important, because the Sixers need him healthy and available to start taking some of the pressure off Maxey.
In Wednesday night’s loss, for example, the Toronto Raptors correctly concluded that Maxey was the only Sixers player on the floor who could create for himself and others. They trapped his pick-and-rolls. They shaded help his way any time he drove the basketball. It turned into an “anyone can score but Maxey” defense. That led to Quentin Grimes having a big fourth quarter as the Sixers rallied. Maxey made the right plays, trusting his teammates, even in what turned out to be a loss.
“I think as I get older, I start maturing a little bit,” Maxey said. “I know that teams are going to start trying to deny me. So I have to allow the game to come to me. That’s what we need from this team. I have to do what’s best for the team, and I have to keep being in attack mode and creating as well.”
The improvements from last season are evident. He’s gotten stronger. His super power has always been his speed and explosion in the open floor. He’s gotten faster and more explosive. He has gotten comfortable in his skin and has fully embraced being the leader on the floor. He’s as well-conditioned as he has ever been.
This season has revealed that Philadelphia has pieces. Philadelphia is getting very good role-player minutes. V.J. Edgecombe has been a rock as a rookie, and Grimes has been terrific off the bench as a sixth man.
Maxey is entering the conversation with Detroit’s Cade Cunningham and New York’s Jalen Brunson when talking point guards in the Eastern Conference. So, there is the star power.
The ceiling of the season may well be determined by how much help Embiid and George can supply. The only reason the Raptors could get away with how they defended Maxey on Wednesday night is that Embiid and George weren’t on the floor. Toronto wasn’t honest defensively because it didn’t have to be.
“He’s been special,” Raptors head coach Darko Rajaković said. “His body has gotten better. He’s stronger and more well-conditioned. I admire him. I admire how hard he has played every single night.”
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Tony Jones is a Staff Writer at The Athletic covering the Philadelphia 76ers and the NBA. A native of the East Coast and a journalism brat as a child, he has an addiction to hip-hop music and pickup basketball, and his Twitter page has been used for occasional debates concerning Biggie and Tupac. Follow Tony on Twitter @Tjonesonthenba
