Despite minimal experience, Maxey could be playoff plus

PHILADELPHIA » When he scored 39 points in his 10th career game, it was dismissed as a quirk on a day when the roster was squeezed by pandemic health protocols.

When he showed in midseason that he was consistently able to penetrate and was not a liability on defense, it was met with a shrug.

When he scored in double figures in each of the four games before a game against Oklahoma City Monday, the continued pro-basketball progress of Tyrese Maxey was widely attributed to a reconfigured Sixers playing rotation in the absence of flustricken Ben Simmons.

Soon, in 11 games to be precise, there will be a decision point.

Will Maxey, at age 20, be a useful piece in a postseason rotation?

Did he do enough in a good, if less than legendary rookie season?

Or was it all a false dawn, the 39-point game, the endless overtime hours he spent in the Camden practice facility, his steady improvement, his recent excellence?

“I don’t know if he is going to be in the regular postseason rotation or not,” coach Doc Rivers was saying before the game Monday. “But I have no doubt that he will play in the playoffs. I am fully confident of that. We’re confident in him. And we’re going to have them all ready.”

There is no reason to not have every player ready, particularly in an era when NBA safety protocols can scuttle a roster during pre-game stretching. But when given the chance to declare that, yes, after 60 games there wasn’t much more for Maxey to show, the head coach chose to hedge.

That’s why the Sixers are paying Rivers $8 million a year. They are buying his eye for talent and his experience in crafting a postseason rotation. They are investing in his ability to know when it is best to use a 20-year-old firstround draft choice with experience in one truncated college basketball season, and when it is best to let him experience his first NBA postseason from the bench, or in small, measured opportunities.

On a regular night, Rivers will hide at 5:15 the lineup he plans to start 80 minutes later. So it’s not like he would be expected to reveal his postseason rotation, whether it be nine or 10 deep, with a dozen games to play. Eventually, though, he must make his choices. The Maxey decision will be among his most complicated.

Rivers will supplement his regular starting lineup with Matisse Thybulle and Dwight Howard. And those 127 career postsesaon games were the leading reason George Hill was acquired at the trade deadline. So there are eight that can go onto the locker room whiteboard five minutes after the end of the regular season.

From there, Rivers must ask himself one question: Is Maxey, as he has shown through most of the season, a cut-above talent? Though Shake Milton has started to stir again after a late-season slide, he was of no help as the starting point guard in the 2020 playoffs. And Furkan Korkmaz was a detriment. Rivers wasn’t the coach, and that was a unique postseason, trapped in an Orlando bubble after a lengthy regular-season pause. But past performances matter, and the Sixers, desperate for a championship, won’t have time to allow Milton and Korkmaz to sag again.

Mike Scott has had some memorable moments in previous Sixers postseasons, and his experience and edge could help in a nine-man loop. But if Rivers needs a guard to complement Hill, Maxey has earned the chance.

“Whenever he steps on the court, he looks good,” Korkmaz said after a morning shoot-around Monday. “He knows how to play. Of course, he needs to get more experience and to feel the game more. But whenever he steps on the court, he does something good for the team that is really helpful.”

Maxey’s 26.2 threepoint shooting percentage hardly dazzles. But that’s not his role. He is an openfloor force with an everimproving ability to drive and score.

“It’s something I have worked on every single day, trying to get better in every aspect of the game, whether it’s passing, shooting, getting to the rack,” Maxey said. “Coach has been on me about getting to the rim. He says I have the ability to do it. Now, he wants me to do it more.”

He does that regularly. But only good teams are in the playoffs, and magically they all have their best players available. Coaches gameplan differently, and those plans grow more complicated the deeper a best-ofseven series will dig. Defense grows more physical.

It won’t be easy, but it’s telling that Rivers is not reluctant to give his rookie guard a chance.

“We see him every day,” Rivers allowed. “We like him. We like what he gives us.”

For an organization pleading far too long for it, it soon will be time to give Maxey some trust.