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PHILADELPHIA — Is there any positive to the Philadelphia 76ers' woeful 2024-25 season, where they snapped their playoff streak and are in danger of coming up with nothing to show for it because they don’t fully control their own draft pick? Tyrese Maxey tried to look at the bright side of a mostly tumultuous season.
“This is gonna sound bad,” the star guard said, “but the one positive that I do take away is the only way we can go from here is up. It gives us something to build to. Everybody in this room, no matter if they come back here, if you're not here, if you are here next year, you should have a different type of edge about yourself. You should go into the summer with a lot to work on and a lot to prove, myself included.”
The Sixers weren’t even close to finishing with a winning percentage of 33 after seven years of finishing with no worse than 57 percent. Injuries put them in a bad position they were unable to dig their way out of. Before they get back to the drawing board, they have to reset for a little bit.
“I think we all need a mental break,” he said. “We need a mental break, mental reset, figure out how this franchise moves forward from this. Again, I mean, the best thing I could possibly say is the best thing we could do is go up. We can't go any further than this.”
Tyrese Maxey eager to help 76ers bounce back from lost season
Maxey had the unenviable task of leading the 76ers while his veteran co-stars were hurt, scoring a lot individually but failing to keep the team afloat. Seeing Joel Embiid fight though knee problems and only play in 19 games “sucked.” Paul George had better injury luck but was still far from optimal. Getting healthy is the first order of business for making next season successful.
“I think we've seen where our peaks can be in this year,” Maxey said. “It wasn't a lot of them but there were some stretches where we all played and we looked really good. We found the right rotations, we knew who to get the ball to, who we need to get the ball to 'em, everybody got shots, everybody looked good.
“The sky's the limit. That's the thing that I can say. But the work has to be put in from day one, not from in the middle of the season.”
The emergence of Jared McCain as a potential future star, the mini-breakout of Quentin Grimes and the promising play of rookies Justin Edwards and Adem Bona give the 76ers some glimmers of hope for the future. But it’s going to take more than that for the Sixers to be the title contender they hoped to be. Maxey will undoubtedly be at the forefront of efforts to make next season much, much better.
