Sixers fans are excited to see it, but what will a Maxey-McCain backcourt look like?

Tyrese Maxey could return as soon as Wednesday. Will Nick Nurse give the people what they want?

Although things are dire now, the Sixers’ season could turn around thanks to two small guards. Tyrese Maxey is set to return either Wednesday or Friday. When he does, he’ll join rookie Jared McCain, who has turned into a human torch brightening up the dark cave of the team’s early 2024-2025 campaign.

They are eerily similar players: Quick, shifty, and equipped with a limitless jump shot while being undersized and therefore perceived as defensive liabilities. Whether or not the two will start games together is up to Nick Nurse, who will finally have his three All-Stars at his disposal. There are veteran options he can surround his Big 3 of Maxey, Paul George and Joel Embiid with. One of Kelly Oubre Jr. and Caleb Martin are likely in the lineup — maybe both.

But starting McCain must be considered with how effective, fun, and complementary his play is. The only drawback, as mentioned above, is his fit with Maxey. In today’s NBA weak defenders are constantly attacked, and that doubles when they are smaller. But in limited time together, the combination of Maxey and McCain has opened up a struggling 76er offense, forming space and issuing in profound gravity as the Big Bang did back when Philadelphia had a drama-free professional basketball team.

Due to Maxey’s injury, they haven’t played many minutes together (Cleaning The Glass has them with 87 possessions) but their overlapping skills have complemented each other when they have been involved in actions together. Here, McCain smartly cuts into space, draws defenders by getting into the paint, and kicks out to a wide-open Maxey who nails the three. That’s the only assist the rookie has to his fellow guard.

Much more illustrative of how their play complemented each other is Maxey’s one assist to McCain. After drawing two defenders on the pick-and-roll, Maxey passes it to McCain who drives to the lane and finishes. The defense is forced to scramble because of Maxey’s threat and McCain is a smart enough player to take advantage of it.

Another similar play wasn’t counted as an assist but it’s the same thing. Maxey’s defender doesn’t want to leave him open, so McCain has space to drive.

In a lovely end-of-quarter action, Maxey sets a screen for McCain who is guarded by a big. Malik Beasley stays attached, giving the rookie an open lane to the bucket. It’s simple but necessary basketball that accentuates both players’ strengths.

In the first clip of my tweet below, watch Ja Morant stunt to stop a Maxey drive. It leaves McCain wide open for a three.

And it works the other way too. Beasley wants to help Isaiah Stewart defend Maxey in isolation but follows McCain to the corner due to the shooting threat. Maxey cooks Stewart for a layup. It’s like watching a sunrise, so beautiful, so easy, and sorely needed in times of darkness.

But, enough about the darkness, the Sixers are the third-best team at forcing opponent turnovers. They need to keep on doing that because their two young guards are absolutely lethal on fast breaks. During one, neither is hesitant to pull up, but both are also willing to push the ball quickly.

Here, McCain gets the rebound as Maxey is sprinting to the corner. The ball finds him and he splashes the three. Off another miss, Maxey dribbles right into the heart of the unset defense as McCain settles into space. They connect but are sullied by an illegal Andre Drummond screen.

Of course, all this happened before McCain’s breakout play that’s made him the current Rookie-of-the-Year favorite. In his last six games — which Maxey has missed due to injury — McCain is averaging 25.2 points while shooting 44% from three. He’s become such a threat that he’s being trapped in pick-and-rolls with Embiid. The thought of Embiid with the ball playing 4-on-3 with PG and Maxey to pass to should bring hope to this understandably dejected fanbase.

Another note from the Heat game is how easily shots came for McCain while playing with PG and Embiid. He missed both of these shots but he was left wide open when the two All-Stars ran a pick-and-roll. It seems simple but he’s so smart at getting into the right spot, whether it’s taking two steps to the left to make the defender’s closeout longer or running into the corner when he realizes no one is guarding him.

But other offenses are smart too, unfortunately. And as enthralling as McCain and Maxey are with the ball in their hands, they’re still small.

The Phoenix Suns were intentional in ensuring the two Philly guards would end up in secondary help position. In the play below, Royce O’Neal tells Tyus Jones, who is guarded by McCain, to move into the post, right next to Kevin Durant and KJ Martin, and Maxey and Bradley Beal. Look at the three Suns literally right next to each other in the paint. Durant points to Devin Booker to drive baseline. That forces KJ Martin, the tallest defender in that little hodgepodge, to help. Booker anticipates this, dumping off to KD who Maxey and McCain could only trouble if one was on the other’s shoulders. Easy bucket.

That side of the ball will be Nurse’s biggest debacle if he leans heavily on the Maxey and McCain backcourt. He’s tried playing them in zone but it’s barely worked as the offense gets to the middle of the zone, the one weak spot, way too easily. Like really easily. Like, really, really easily.

What has worked is encouraging chaos. Trapping ball handlers randomly, as McCain and Guerschon Yabusele did to Cade Cunningham, is a viable strategy. But so is sending lots of stunts and fake doubles. McCain poked the ball away from Ja Morant in such a situation.

Because offenses will be so deliberate in forcing the smaller guards into guarding or helping, you have to distract them by getting busy.

Nurse’s time in Toronto proved he’s creative on defense — less we forget his box-and-one coverage on Steph Curry in the NBA Finals — and of maximizing the play of two small guards. He won a championship with Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet and a couple of All-Stars playing beside them.

With this Sixers roster finally healthy and despite all the early turmoil, the path to success isn’t as far away or as treacherous as it may seem. McCain has kept it alight and now he could be used in a glorious concoction with his fellow stars to truly blaze that trail.