Tyrese Maxey's Finger Injury Could End His All-NBA Chances

The Sixers' nightmare month got even worse Tuesday.

"Following consultation with multiple hand specialists, which included a review of additional imaging," star guard Tyrese Maxey was diagnosed with "a tendon injury to the small finger on his right hand," the team announced before its game against the Memphis Grizzlies. Maxey is set to be re-evaluated in three weeks.

That's the last thing the short-handed Sixers needed amidst a 4-8 swoon over their past 12 games.

Even if Maxey is cleared in exactly three weeks, he's now poised to miss the Sixers' next 11 games. At most, there will be seven regular-season games left for him to play in before the postseason begins.

That could cost him his first-ever All-NBA nod.

The 65-game rule strikes again

In the NBA's infinite wisdom, its latest collective bargaining contains a provision that requires players to appear in at least 65 games—and play at least 20 minutes in 63 of them—to be eligible for end-of-season awards such as Most Valuable Player, Defensive Player of the Year or the All-NBA teams.

Maxey, who's averaging a career-high 29.0 points per game and appeared destined for his first All-NBA nod, is four games short of that requirement. If he doesn't get cleared by April 6, he will not be able to appear in 65 games and will automatically be disqualified from winning those individual accolades.

Thanks to the 65-game rule, stars such as Giannis Antetokounmpo, Stephen Curry and LeBron James are already ineligible for those awards. If Nikola Jokić misses two more games, he'll be disqualified as well.

Maxey is already on a long-term max contract, so there aren't any financial ramifications for him if the 65-game rule does cost him his All-NBA spot. Those accolades do tend to matter when evaluating a player's overall career and legacy, though. (Take it from someone who voted in B/R's Top 100 NBA Players of All Time last summer.)

The bigger issue is what it means for the Sixers moving forward.

Is it Joever for the Sixers?

As it turns out, removing an All-NBA-caliber point guard from your team's rotation has fairly drastic consequences.

In their 115-101 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday, the Sixers had 66 points through three quarters before their reserves feasted in garbage time. Their offense is completely rudderless without Maxey, Joel Embiid and Paul George.

Embiid has missed the Sixers' past five games with an oblique injury and won't return until this weekend at the earliest. George still has eight games left on his 25-game suspension for violating the NBA's anti-drug policy and won't return until March 25.

VJ Edgecombe is poised to take over as the Sixers' lead ball-handler in Maxey's absence, which is one silver lining for fans who are otherwise wondering why it's even worth bothering tuning into these next few games. The Sixers should use these games to push the envelope with Edgecombe and see what could be translatable when they're back at full-ish strength.

Maxey's injury effectively guarantees that the Sixers won't finish with a top-six seed in the Eastern Conference and will have to battle for a playoff spot in the play-in tournament. They're 6.5 games up on the 11th-seeded Milwaukee Bucks with less than 20 games remaining for both teams, so there's still a chance they could slip into the lottery, too. Unfortunately, they owe their 2026 first-round pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder if it falls outside the top four. (As if they haven't given the Thunder enough gifts this year.)

There's no sugarcoating this: Maxey's injury is a devastating blow both to his All-NBA chances and the Sixers' chances of making noise in the postseason. Perhaps they're back at full strength in April and they're the most terrifying No. 10 seed in NBA history, but the more likely scenario is that they're going to spend the next month limping to the finish line on their second straight lost season.

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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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