Tyrese Maxey, 76ers Reaping Benefits of Handling Business Early

The NBA presents a long season. With 82 games, and potentially more depending on a team’s playoff status, downtime is critical, especially for a player of Tyrese Maxey’s caliber.

At this point in his career, the 23-year-old Maxey is playing a lot more minutes compared to his first three seasons in the league. Over his career, Maxey averaged 28 minutes on the floor throughout his first 196 appearances in the regular season.

This year, Maxey is among the leaders in minutes per game, spending an average of 38 minutes on the floor in his first 22 matchups of the year. While Maxey has proven that his relentless work ethic has allowed him to be prepared for the high minutes that get tossed his way, the young guard appreciates the small breaks when he can get them.

And thanks to the Sixers’ ability to close out games much earlier recently, Maxey has benefitted from the handful of blowouts the Sixers recently issued to their competition.

“It’s been great for us, honestly,” Maxey said following a Friday night victory over the Detroit Pistons. “We’ve been playing less minutes. We’ve been handling business early.”

On Friday night, the Sixers possessed a 61-39 lead going into halftime. With another major third-quarter performance, Maxey and the 76ers were well on their way to another blowout win over the Pistons. As a result, the entire starting five received the entire fourth quarter off.

“I don’t think [Joel Embiid] has played in the last two fourth quarters,” Maxey noted. “That’s good that he gets to rest. I didn’t play in the fourth today, I don’t think Tobias [Harris], a lot of guys that play heavy minutes didn’t play in the fourth so it’s good for us.”

Not every weekly slate of games will resemble the Sixers’ recent run against some of the Eastern Conference’s rebuilding squads, so it’s a positive sign the Sixers are taking advantage of opportunities to garner rest while they can.

With 58 regular season matchups left on the list, Maxey and the Sixers have a lot of work to do before they get to the postseason, where they are expected to craft a run. Staying healthy and avoiding fatigue will be key along the way.