Tyrese Maxey has an All-NBA opportunity this season. How can he make the most of it?

With the new normal of his injury-prone co-stars, Maxey can thrive to the top of the league.

At the start of their already teetering NBA season, one thing has emerged clear for the Philadelphia 76ers: their path to the playoffs will be forged by Tyrese Maxey. MVP center Joel Embiid and new All-Star signing Paul George are already on the injury report. They won’t be playing game one. And the team has made it clear they’ll sit them, especially Embiid, for many more games.

Yes, they can afford such luxury thanks to an upgraded roster. Caleb Martin, Andre Drummond and Eric Gordon are veterans with proven skill sets in comparison to the Sixers they replaced. And despite his immediate lack of availability, Paul George is preferable over Tobias Harris. But Maxey is the one tasked with feeding those teammates and carrying this franchise through the long regular season.

His speed and shooting will shape the team’s offense. Who can complement him the greatest will see clutch minutes. The team needs him to stay on his trajectory to greatness, illustrated last season by a Most Improved trophy and an All-Star appearance.

To secure a top-six seed and avoid the late-season stress of a play-in race, Maxey needs to be an All-NBA level player. He was close last season, receiving one second-team vote and 13 third-team votes while averaging 25.9 points, 6.2 assists and 3.7 rebounds on 45 FG%, 37.3 3PT FG% and 57.3 True Shooting%.

His averages are close to the combined stats of last year’s All-NBA guards Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luka Doncic, Jalen Brunson, Anthony Edwards, Stephen Curry, Devin Booker and Tyrese Haliburton (I know they’re positionless now, but guards have comparable roles and hence the best should be the benchmark). Their unified per-game averages are 27.5 points, 7.2 assists, 5.2 rebounds on 48.3 FG%, 37.6 3PT FG%, and 60.7 TS%.

Less than one more made field goal a game and one more assist per game? Please. Even with an expected increase in defensive attention by the opposition, that’s what the kids call light work. The only real question is whether he can maintain and even increase his efficiency with the increased workload.

Without Embiid last season, as he’s set to be for plenty of this season, Maxey averaged 26.3 points and 5.6 assists on 43.4 FG%, 34.2 3PT FG%, and 54.2 TS%. That’s not as significant of a counting stat leap as expected, and a decrease in efficiency. But the aforementioned retooled roster will help with that.

His worst game without Embiid last season was a 12-point effort in a 23-point loss to Golden State on Feb. 7, when Andrew Wiggins guarded him and he was battling a nasty illness. The starting lineup around Maxey was Paul Reed, Tobias Harris, Kelly Oubre Jr. and Jaden Springer. Not great. The bench was, let’s just say worse.

This year, when Embiid sits, Nurse can surround Maxey from a roster including NBA veterans Andre Drummond, Paul George, Caleb Martin, Eric Gordon, Kyle Lowry, Oubre and Olympic cinderella Guerschon Yabusele. George should move large wing defenders away from Maxey and onto him, allowing the 24-year-old to pick on people his own size. And the rest of the roster is smarter, experienced, and suited to play off a defense-shifting electric young guard.

Gordon’s always on a roster because he can shoot. Caleb Martin isn’t on the same level but can get extremely hot and has learned to cut timely. Yabusele, while unproven in the NBA, has the tools to be a valued stretch-four/small ball five.

Photo by Fernando Medina/NBAE via Getty Images

But perhaps the most welcome new weapon in Nurse and Maxey’s quiver — apart from George, who grades out as one of the best off-ball players in the league — is Drummond. Last season, Maxey had the eighth-highest points per possession (1.0) among players who handled the ball in a pick-and-roll at least 7.5 times per game. His only three teammates to set and roll for him at least once a game last season were Paul Reed, Joel Embiid and Mo Bamba. Of those three, Reed averaged the most points per possession at 1.21. Embiid and Bamba averaged 1.11 and 0.95, respectively.

In 79 games for the Bulls last season, Drummond averaged 1.30 ppp as a roller. Not elite elite compared to the rest of the league (ranks 15th amongst players with at least 1 possession and in 41 games or more), but better than Reed.

Maxey’s first step is already ridiculous enough to beat defenders on his lonesome, but having an improved rolling threat opens up offensive options for every P&R possession. They showed some chemistry during the preseason: whether it was Drummond setting a very high screen for a Maxey pull-up three, or a lob finish by the big man.

At the least, Maxey driving while Drummond rolls will put the ball in rotation, where Maxey thrives and should thrive more with his new veterans. Maxey shot 44% on catch-and-shoot threes last season. That efficiency lowered slightly to 42% in the stretch Embiid was injured. If the team can find a way to generate open catch-and-shoot threes for Maxey while Embiid sits, everyone will be happy.

They did that at times during the preseason. This action with Drummond, George and Maxey blended their strengths and the team should always look to exploit. Drummond sets an off-ball screen for PG which quickly turns into a pick-and-roll, George passes it to Drummond, the paint collapses on the big man in the paint, and he kicks it out to Maxey who pump-fakes and side steps into a wide-open three. That’s George’s off-ball threat, Drummond’s rolling prowess, and Maxey’s catch-and-shoot three all in one possession. Yum.

Numbers are important, but all Maxey really has to do is convince voters he’s one of the 15 best players in the league this season. A few of last year’s All-NBA players will fall off due to injury or simply a down year. Players who missed time last season or barely missed qualifying — such as Ja Morant and Jaylen Brown — will be in the mix for the honors too.

Maxey has the opportunity to prove that he’s among the league’s greatest, a supporting cast that should amplify his abilities, and, as we all know, he has the skill. If he can reduce questions about the team’s current and future success, he’s done the job.