LeBron James Calls Tyrese Maxey One of the NBA's Best Point Guards

One of the perks of having Klutch Sports' Rich Paul as your agent is that you have an automatic in with Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James. Tyrese Maxey has used that to his advantage.

In the latest episode of the Mind the Game podcast, LeBron specifically mentioned Maxey and Atlanta Hawks forward Jalen Johnson when co-host Steve Nash asked him to name a few players who've taken a notable leap this season.

"I've worked out and trained with him over the last few summers," LeBron said about Maxey. "Every morning, 5 a.m., we're in the gym, 5:30, whatever, in the gym. And you just see his dedication. Shows up on time, on target, every single day. A guy who just loves the game and is taking full advantage of the opportunity in Philly. I love the kid—I talked about it when we played Philly not too long ago about not only how incredible of a basketball player he is, but how much better he is as a person. Which is saying a lot, because he's an unbelievable basketball player."

Nash highlighted Maxey's speed and athleticism as the key to the pressure he puts on the rim.

"An element that makes people great consistently is rim pressure," Nash said. "If you can constantly put paint pressure, rim pressure on the defense… it doesn't mean you're always getting to the rim, but the threat that you can get there, whether it's speed, strength. [Nikola] Jokić does it because skill, but also size. He can bully his way to the rim every time. Everyone's gotta come, because once he gets in there, he's too big for everyone.

"Maxey does it with speed. Johnson does it with athleticism. But that pressure allows you to get more opportunities from three, allows you to get playmaking opportunities."

Nash added that Maxey's pace is "overwhelming at times," and that "you can just see guys just can't keep him in front."

"No, they just can't," LeBron replied. "And that's God-given right there. That's God-given speed and talent, and he just said, "You know what? I know what I was possessed with, and I'm going to take full advantage of it. And not only use it to my advantage, but it also creates so much downhill pressure at the rim. But also, a lot of guys know his speed, so they try to cut him off. And his ability to have a tight handle and snatch back and hit those step-back threes, you know, and get to the free-throw line and make his mid-range and make his floater.

"The kid has everything. He's one of the best point guards not only in the Eastern Conference, but in the NBA."

Off-ball work catches NBA legends' eye

One of the big differences between last season and this year is that the Sixers now have multiple ball-handlers who can help alleviate Maxey's burden. That's enabled him to work more off the ball, which James believes makes him even more dangerous.

"It's hard to guard guys that have the ball with speed and quickness, but I think it's even harder to guard guys when they're off the ball and they're actually running towards the ball. 'Cause you can't get a hand on guys. You're not allowed to hold guys. You've got guys coming out of the corners full speed. Do you chase them over this? Do you try to gap it? If you gap, they could stop behind it and shoot the three, or now they just turn around and re-screen it, and now you're playing from behind. And he's very dynamic in that, too."

The results bear that out. Maxey is averaging career highs in points (31.0) and assists (7.0) while shooting an efficient 47.5 percent overall and 40.5 percent from deep. That's a marked upgrade from last season, when Maxey's efficiency dipped to 43.7 percent overall and only 33.7 percent from three-point range.

Last season, a career-low 30.7 percent of Maxey's two-pointers and a career-low 49.1 percent of his three-pointers were assisted. This year, he's back up to 36.9 percent of his two-pointers and 62.5 percent of his three-pointers being assisted. Maxey is shooting 36.7 percent on pull-up three-pointers—far better than the 32.5 percent he shot last year—but he's at 46.0 percent on catch-and-shoot triples. He's attempting nearly four such shots per game this year compared to only 3.1 last year.

Chalk that up as yet another way that the addition of VJ Edgecombe has been a boon to Maxey and the Sixers at large.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM.

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