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Tyrese Maxey's breakout into superstardom is here, and everyone in the NBA should be on notice.
On Saturday, Tyrese Maxey lit up a Toronto Raptors defense allowing the seventh-fewest points per game this season, with a titillating 38-point 78.6% EFG% performance to begin the Philadelphia 76ers 2022 playoff run.
Those who think this 76ers team is just Joel Embiid and James Harden surrounded by many role players might have found themselves surprised by Maxey's dominant performance yesterday – but that is just both the expectation and the standard for Maxey from this point forward.
As illustrated in the D-DPM chart above, Tyrese Maxey's career got off to a rocky start.
The 21st overall pick of the 2020 NBA Draft out of Kentucky shot just 29% from three-point range as a rookie and 8% on corner three-pointers, albeit on 12 attempts.
These numbers are pretty identical to the numbers Maxey put up in his lone season for the Wildcats, in which Maxey averaged 14 points, four rebounds, and three assists per game on 42/29/83 shooting splits.
Maxey's shot chart from his rookie season demonstrates precisely how the majority of Maxey's offense was generated as a rookie –living inside of the three-point line on offense.
Maxey thrived as a rookie from around 4-14 feet away from the basket – shooting 51% on 97 attempts, which ranked Maxey in the 92nd percentile of all NBA players, per Cleaning The Glass.
Overall, Maxey's averages of 18 points, four rebounds, and four assists per game on 51/30/87 splits per 36 minutes per game outlines the potential the 76ers saw when they took Maxey as the sixth point guard selection of the 2020 NBA Draft.
When Ben Simmons decided to move on from the 76ers following Philadelphia's collapse against the Atlanta Hawks in the playoffs last season, the door become ajar for Maxey to get a chance to earn the starting point guard job.
With a huge bump from 15 minutes to 35 minutes per game this season, Maxey is obliterating all thoughts and conjecture about what Maxey's ceiling as a player could be.
Of all of Maxey's improvements, the most notable has to be Maxey's transition from being a 29% to a 44% three-point shooter this season on just south of 300 attempts.
If nothing else, Maxey's improvement as a three-point shooter (especially from the right side of the court) forces opponents to have to guard him beyond the perimeter, opening up more opportunities for Embiid in the paint and allowing Harden more freedom and options to throw the ball to as the 76ers lead ballhandler.
Holy shit, Tyrese Maxey pic.twitter.com/uNqeoVQc0I
— Jackson Frank (@jackfrank_jjf) April 17, 2022
🎥 roll the tape! @tyresemaxey's final line: 38 PTS / 14-21 FG / 5-8 3FG / 5-5 FT pic.twitter.com/C4MCWTaZoq
— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) April 17, 2022
The fact that Maxey's taken five times as many three-pointers this season [61] means that opposing teams cannot just sag off of Maxey when he stands in the corner. Even if Maxey is not entirely comfortable shooting from the corner yet(although Maxey did knock down 57% of his corner threes).
The next step in Maxey's game will be to try and improve his free throw rate.
Maxey's free throw rate of 24.7% is up 8% from his rookie season, but Maxey is averaging just three free throw attempts per game.
Maxey will also need to become a more dependable shot creator for others to alleviate the pressure on a not-so-gracefully aging Harden (assuming Harden is in Philadelphia beyond this season).
For the season, Maxey's average of 5.2 adjusted assists per game ranks him in a tie for 66th amongst all NBA players, and Maxey's 11.2 assist points created per game also ranks him 66th in the NBA.
For now, though, Maxey can thrive as a scoring threat and worry about becoming a better shot creator for others during the offseason.
Based on the upward trajectory shown from Maxey this season, it would not come as a surprise if the 21-year-old ended up being the 2nd-best point guard of his draft class outside of LaMelo Ball if he continues to improve offensively.
