Tyrese Maxey’s Proud of Paul Reed’s Performance vs. Pistons

Philadelphia 76ers guard Tyrese Maxey loved what he saw out of his teammate Paul Reed on Sunday against the Detroit Pistons.

As the Sixers were down two starters in Joel Embiid and PJ Tucker, Paul Reed was called upon to become the backup center for the night behind Montrezl Harrell.

All season long, Reed and Harrell have been competing for minutes behind Joel Embiid. When the 2022-2023 NBA season started off, Reed was second to Harrell in the rotation. As Harrell had some struggles early on, Reed took over for a bit.

Then once Reed struggled, Sixers head coach Doc Rivers went back to Harrell. Since then, Reed’s collected DNPs, while only picking up garbage time minutes. Waiting patiently for his next opportunity to get back out on the floor for notable minutes, Reed had himself a solid showcase on Sunday with 24 minutes of action issued to him.

And after the Sixers defeated the Pistons, Tyrese Maxey had tons of praise for the third-year center.

“He just causes so much havoc,” said Maxey. “Sometimes you don’t know what he’s doing, but he’s just running around and playing with so much energy that the other team sometimes can’t keep up."

Doc Rivers made it clear that he wants to utilize Reed for defense and rebounding purposes. While Reed’s made it clear that he understands his role, doing the “dirty work” for the Sixers, the young center tends to get off track at times, losing sight of his role on the court.

That’s something that Rivers pointed out on Sunday.

“I thought he got lost for a little bit out of his role,” said Rivers. “He wanted to do more, wanted to do too much, and it got him in trouble as a player.”

Focused on what’s asked of him, Reed played within his range on Sunday, and it paid off.

“The energy he brings when he’s rolling, offensive rebounding, blocking shots, getting steals, being disruptive on the defensive end — he was good tonight,” Maxey continued. “I’m proud of him because, like you said, he can get lost. Sometimes it’s hard when you don’t play a couple of games in a row. But to go out there and be ready as soon as your number is called is big.”

Reed had one of his best performances of the season on Sunday, and the timing couldn’t be better. After finding himself on the outside of the rotation looking in for the last couple of weeks, Reed drained 86 percent of his seven shots and was a perfect 4-4 from the charity stripe, producing 16 points in 24 minutes.

He also snagged a double-double by coming down with 12 rebounds, with eight of them coming from the offensive end. Sunday’s performance might not be a stepping stone back into the everyday rotation, but it was a good reminder to the 76ers that Reed can be valuable when he’s needed.

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for All76ers, a Sports Illustrated channel. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.