With his new four-year, $204 million contract extension officially signed and his new teammate, Paul George, officially signed to the Philadelphia 76ers on a max contract of his own, Tyrese Maxey can now officially turn his attention to the future, where he will be playing alongside two of the best three-level scorers in the NBA today.
Will there be some growing pains? Sure, while most expect George to seamlessly slide into Tobias Harris' spot in Nick Nurse's rotation, only with a far more effective offensive and defensive game, every player is different, and everyone on the team new and returning will have to learn where the nine-time All-Star likes to get the ball, how he runs the court, and ultimately, how his individual dynamic fits into the team's overall game plan.
And yet, when you consider the 76ers are now one of the few teams in the NBA with a true Big 3, with each player capable of scoring from anywhere on-ball and off, the prospect of meshing the three All-Stars together is a good problem to have for Nurse and his staff.
Discussing what it's like to play alongside Joel Embiid and the borderline unprecedented gravity he garners from opposing defenses on Playoff P Presented by Wave Sports + Entertainment, Maxey let George know to practice his catch-and-shoot 3s this offseason, as he's going to get more open looks than he's ever had before.
Tyrese Maxey hopes Paul George is ready to shoot for the 76ers
Preparing his new teammate for what it's like to play alongside one of the truly transcendent centers in recent NBA history, Maxey revealed to George what he should prepare for, which is not just beneficial for himself but for the entire team too.
“For me, a guy that create his own shot and do things off the dribble and you don't have to do those things when Joel's on the court you so open sometimes it feels like wrong. P, he shoot 41% from three. You know what I'm saying? So when he play with Big Fella and they have to trap when they have to triple team him, there's going to be times next year he [Paul] is going to catch the ball and be like, bro, why am I so open? It's not right for him. We are talking about Paul, George, dude, a guy that been a superstar and athlete for a long time. It's like the rotation and stuff,” Tyrese Maxey explained.
“He's so dominant, he has to see another body or he's going to get 70. He's going to score almost every possession… He'll also say stuff like ‘I'm going to be Dirk today' and he'll go out and dominate the game just shooting all fadeaways, or ‘I'm going to be Shaq today' and go dominate the post. I remember one time I asked him who are you going to be today, and he's like ‘I'm going to be Joel Embiid,' and that's when he went out and had the 59-point game. This man's unbelievable. He's that good. He's not just raw talent, he really works on his game, he works on his body, he work on staying healthy.”
After widely being considered a minus-to-mid shooter coming out of Kentucky, connecting on just 30.3 percent of his shots from beyond the arc, Maxey has rapidly become one of the best shooters in the NBA, hitting 40.4 percent of his shots on 6.1 attempts per game over the past three seasons. While some of this development has to be credited to the former first-round pick's relentless work ethic, as his game has developed across the board since his rookie campaign, some of it has to be credited to Embiid, too, as he is such a force in the painted area that speedy players like Maxey are able to consistently get open looks on the outside when the big fella is working in the paint.
Considering George is a career 38.5 percent shooter, who hit 40 percent of his attempts in three of his five seasons with the Los Angeles Clippers, PG-13 has the potential to absolutely feast on open looks while playing off of Embiid, earning some of the easiest catch-and-shoot opportunities of his career thanks to “The Process” in the paint. Considering George only took the 26th most catch-and-shoot 3s of any players in the NBA at 342 but made them at a very impressive 45.4 percent clip, it feels like Geoege has the potential to really unlock a new aspect of his game, which, considering his advancing age, could keep him very relevant for the duration of his deal with the 76ers.
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