Doc Rivers Believes Tyrese Maxey Already Impressed James Harden

When the Philadelphia 76ers took the practice court on Monday, they had two new members in the building. James Harden and Paul Millsap, who were traded from the Brooklyn Nets late last week, finally made their practice debuts in Philadelphia.

Considering there are only 26 games left in the regular season, the Sixers will have to make every moment count in shootarounds, practices, and games. Therefore, Doc Rivers wanted James Harden working hard alongside his backcourt teammate Tyrese Maxey on the first day of practice.

Coming into the 2021-2022 NBA season, Tyrese Maxey expected to have a more prominent role compared to last year. However, he probably didn't envision becoming the Sixers' starting point guard.

But since the three-time All-Star Ben Simmons held out for a trade, the Sixers had no choice but to utilize Maxey in the starting five. It turns out the Sixers found a gem in the former 21st overall pick as Maxey has been able to do a little bit of everything and continues taking his game to a higher level as the season progresses.

It's unclear how much James Harden knew about Maxey outside of the couple of games he played against him between last season and this year, but Sixers head coach Doc Rivers believes the ten-time All-Star was quite impressed with the young second-year guard on Monday afternoon.

"Clearly, our first day, we wanted to make sure that James and Tyrese were together," said Rivers, according to Ky Carlin of USA Today's Sixers Wire. "Just being together will help Tyrese. James today was blown away by Tyrese. Like he had two dunks today, and James was like, 'Oh my gosh' because you don't see that, how athletic he is. I thought that surprised James."

In addition to spending a lot of time on the court together during practice, Maxey and Harden continued working together following practice as well. Typically, a handful of Sixers players always stay around after practice and continue to put work in.

Maxey and Harden were spotted on the floor doing some additional post-practice drills together on Monday. The duo won't debut together this week, as Harden is set to miss at least the next couple of games due to hamstring tightness. Soon enough, though, Maxey and Harden will share the court for games as the Sixers make their final push down the stretch of the 2021-2022 NBA season.

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.