Tyrese Maxey EMERGING as Sixers’ LEADER – Locked On Philadelphia 76ers

Tyrese Maxey EMERGING as Sixers’ LEADER – Locked On Philadelphia 76ers

A changing at the guard at guard when it comes to the leadership of your Philadelphia 76ers. He’s Keith Pompei. I’m Mark Farzetta. Will break it all down and more on this edition of Locked On 76ers. You are Locked On 76ers, your daily Philadelphia 76ers podcast, part of the Locked Onet. Your team every day. And we do thank you for making Locked on 76ers your first listen every day. Part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. This particular episode brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and if it wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Head to fanduel.com to get started. Keith Pompei, your 76ers beat Ryder. When it comes to Tyrese Max, we’ve talked about this a lot throughout the offseason. This is gonna have to become more of his team, especially in the heavily loadmanaged situation that Joel Embiid may find himself in this season and also for the future. Sixers would love to see Tyrese Maxi take on more of a leadership role. You have an article on inquire.com talking about that right now. And one of the other interesting things about this is that Maxi came out during media day and right out of the gate set a tone. And that tone was setting a standard for the rest of the season. No matter who is available, no matter who is out there, when you’re going to watch a Sixers game or Sixers fans are going to go to a Sixers game, you’re going to be there in the in the present. You you got to understand the style of play that they’re going to go about this, which is going to be I I assume hard-nosed, tough defense, all out effort on the court all the time. That’s coming from Tyrese Maxi. It’s not coming from Paul George. It’s not coming from Joel Embiid. It’s coming from Tyrese Maxi. He’s always been mature, Keith, but to take on this type of tone setting leadership role, I find it very interesting. Yeah, it’s it’s kind of I’m not going to say it’s forced, but it’s kind of like there’s a void right now. You know, like like as you said, you know, Joel Embiid is coming off of injuries. Um Paul George is coming off injuries. also, you know, Paul George’s second season here. You know, outside of Joel, you know, Tyrese has been here the second longest um or or the longest. So, you know, it it’s it’s one of those things where, you know, he has to come out and say that, you know, he has to be the extension of the coach. He’s also the point guard, the primary ball handler. But it’s one of those things where you know when he comes out and he says, “Hey, no matter who’s out there, this is how we got to play.” Yes and no. But at the same time, you understand where he’s coming from just because he has to be that guy. He has to be the guy that organizes everything. Now, ideally, you would want Joel Embiid to do it. You would want uh someone else to do it. but just because of their situations and because of personalities, you know, Joel is more laidback. He’s more of a introvert, whereas Tyrese is the more uh well-liked guy out of everyone. Like he’s the dude that everyone’s making a phone call to. He’s the dude that everyone’s inviting to a party and stuff like that. So, you know, his leadership has to come out and it has to shine. But again, it tells you just where the 76ers are right now. Certainly. And the other thing about it that I found really interesting is that I almost consider it to be a dropping of the gauntlet type of thing. Like look, this is look, this is the way it’s going to be. And forced, I understand where you’re going with that. I think what I hear is it’s more of a not forced that he had he’s forced into an uncomfortable situation and he’s trying to force, you know, the what square peg into a round hole. It’s not that. It’s just a I’m dropping this down right now. We are setting a new standard this year. And I think it goes along the lines of the culture that these Sixers are trying to build right now, both with Tyrese Maxi, VJ Edgecom, and hopefully whenever Jired McCain’s healthy enough to play again. They’re trying to set a new standard, a new culture in Philadelphia with with guys that want to go out there and guys that want to play, not the the a carryover of the process where we’re still waiting to see if that bears real fruit other than a Joel Embiid MVP award. I got the sense of Tyrese Maxi kind of being where a lot of Sixers fans are right now, which is fed up. They’re fed up with it. They just want to see this team win. They don’t want to hear the excuses for Joel Embiid. They don’t want to hear about more injuries. They just want to see their team go out there and play good basketball. And I think what I’ll say, I don’t want to downgrade it into a sales pitch because I do I do think what Tyrese Maxi said was absolutely genuine. But he’s letting people know that he’s aware of the way the Sixers have been perceived in the past and he wants all the drama to go out the window and he just wants to be he wants it to be about playing good ball. That’s what I got out of his message last week. Well, is also and and the one thing that he talked about this was on Saturday. He talked about how, you know, because I asked him, I said, you know, Tyrese, where did this leadership quality come from? Where did all this come from? and he was like, you know, basically I’ve been around for a while, but he said two years ago towards the end of um you know, the season where he became the all-star two seasons ago, Joel told him that he had he needed him to be a little bit more vocal, right? and he said to him he tried last year in the beginning, but he really didn’t get comfortable with it until midway in the season, you know, and and and where we talk about it is is because when you look around, there’s not a lot of veterans anymore. I mean, yeah, you got Kelly Hooper, you have Andre Drummond, but what I’m talking about outside of Drummond, there’s none of, you know, there there’s none of Tyrese’s old heads. Tobias isn’t here. James Harden isn’t here. You know, a lot of these guys who took over that leadership quality, they’re just not. So, when you look at it and we look at Joel and we look at the injuries, I mean, you know, Joel played what, 39 games two years ago. He played 19 games last year. You know, Maxi had to step up. He has to. Now the biggest question mark is right to me is you know we talk about leadership vocal leadership but is he also the leader of the team and and I feel like he had he’s going to be and the reason why I’m talking about uh athletic leader talking about production leader because you know you look at him and you say to yourself he’s not because you know you could close your eyes and you can imagine Maxi’s biggest game greatest game that he had of his career that’s nothing compared is great, but it doesn’t compare to what Embiid has done. You look at the accolades that Paul George has had over his career. Maxi, what Maxi has done doesn’t compare, right? But at the same time, when you look at where these guys are coming from, we talked about Embiid 19 games, Embiid saying everything is dayto-day. Paul George doesn’t is, you know, right now is in question if he’s even going to play in the season opener, right? So, right then and there when you look at Maxi, you have to say that, you know, he’s not only the most reliable player, but because he’s the most reliable player, he may be the best player on the team if if Embiid doesn’t, you know, doesn’t uh become healthy. So, you know, there’s a lot on his a lot of weight on his shoulder in regards to Maxi, but at the same time, you know, he is embracing it, but when that’s why I say it’s a little forced because it’s kind of sort of like you would think you got a big three and you want to just blend in and do everything, but right about now is you have to become the spokesman. And you know, at least in the early going, a lot of the team success is going to depend on you. And for him, it doesn’t mean just scoring 30, 40 points. It’s like, I got to get people involved. I got to do a lot of different things. So, you know, he is right now. You can make an argument while he is the leader, you can make an argument for today, right now, that under the circumstances, he’s also their best player. I not to cross sports with this, but a lot of people talked about Jaylen Herz, like he was an introvert. He didn’t want to be the rahrh guy. He didn’t want to be the talker. And now you see him as his career has gone on. And yeah, a Super Bowl MVP and a Super Bowl ring helps this. But he’s become more comfortable with being more of that rahrh guy, being more of the guy to give that motivational speech or or have a conversation with a teammate, a tough conversation with a teammate. Now, Maxi’s got a long way to go to be able to get to that same level, of course, but it almost feels like right now he’s forced into that role. The only difference is I think Tyrese Maxi has always been comfortable in a leadership role. He just hasn’t been called upon or forced into it like I think he’s going to be really at the end of last year he was. And then also the way he is going to be in this upcoming season. And I love one of the things I think he told you something about, you know, this is just how I am. Maybe I’m old now. Is that what he said about taking on more of a vocal role? Yeah, I’m old. I’m kind of like, okay, 25. You might be 25. Okay. Okay. Old as dirt. But I I think that that is a younger player really coming into his own where he’s he looks around and realizes well and this is not a shot of Joel Embiid. It’s not a shot of Paul George. It’s an acknowledgment of their availability availability and lack thereof where he’s looking around and being like, “All right, no one else is going to do it.” So, it’s got to be me. If I’m going to be the most consistent and the most consistently good player out there, best player out there, then I have to take on that mantle. Exactly right. You’re exactly right. The best player out there. I got to take on that mantle. And the thing is, you know, you look at him and you say to yourself, you know, is he there yet? Is he like, do you look at him? Do you say if Maxi would go on to the New York Knicks, would he be looked upon as the leader? Probably not because, right, he would be a leader, but he wouldn’t have to do all that. But I kind of think that for this team, and there are going to be there are certain people who are critical of Maxi. You know, some people love him, some people don’t. like they talk about bring up his flaws, but I think for this particular team, for this situation that he may he’s he’s suited for this because let’s think about this. It wasn’t too long ago, the year before he made the All-Star team that Doc Rivers took him out of the starting lineup. Now, they tried to make it seem like Maxi said, “I’ll do what was forever for the team.” And we found out that was not true. They took him out of the starting lineup, right? you know, he he was also a guy as a rookie, you know, he came in and I remember that one game, the first time he really start he started against the Denver Nuggets and he had a phenomenal game and then all of a sudden he goes back to the bench, right? But then the playoffs, they needed him and guess what? He stepped up again. He kind of extended the series, right? And when they lost, they ended up losing in game seven to the Atlanta Hawks on, you know, Ben Simmons. Everybody talking about passing up the shot, but it wouldn’t have been a game seven if it wasn’t for Maxi. So yeah, when we look at this, when you have a guy right now and there’s sort of like the changing of the guards, you got these injuries and you have a bunch of unheralded players, Maxi might be the best one to lead him because he’s not a top draft pick. He was the 22nd overall pick, right? He was a guy who came off the bench. they they can look at him now as someone who’s closer to them than if he was a top pick or a number three pick, right? So, I feel like this is a good role for him and and to keep the leadership. The biggest question mark is like, you know, just how are they going to do over time until they get healthy? But I think that he is the right guy to do it. And he’s also a great person. You know what I mean? Like like we talk about uh you know we we we talk about um Jaylen Herz. You know Jaylen Herz is you know from all accounts what I hear is a is a quality young guy young man. The same thing for Maxi. I have yet to find anybody say anything negative about Tyrese Maxi. We were asked by our uh by the mothership. We were asked by Locked on Sports to go over the biggest problem with the 76ers. We’re going to get into that. And one of them does have to do with Tyrese Maxing. It’s a problem we identified early on in the offseason. Something we want to see Maxi do differently this year. We’ll talk about that when we return. This is Locked on 76ers and the locked on Sixers YouTube channel. And now it’s time to tell you about FanDuel. How about this offer right now from FanDuel? As we know, the NFL season is upon us and FanDuel has this offer for you that you don’t want to miss. Right now, new customers could bet just $5 and get $300 in bonus bets if your bet wins. That’s right. Pick a bet, put down five bucks, and if it hits, you’ll unlock $300 in bonus bets to use across the FanDuel app. So, go to FanDuel.com right now to get started and download FanDuel app. I love using FanDuel because the player props. You can ride same game parlays and all that. It makes every single game day that much more exciting with the FanDuel app. So, what are you waiting for? Visit fanuel.com, download the FanDuel app, and get started today with this $5 bet. And if it hits for new customers, you get $300 in bonus bets. FanDuel makes every game day so much more exciting. So take advantage. Go to fanduel.com. Download the FanDuel app to get started at fanduel.com. Keith Pompei, we were asked by the mothership the biggest problem surrounding the 109876ers. And to get off of Maxi for a second, I think everyone throughout the entire world, Abu Dhabi and more, Abu Dhabi and beyond knows what the 76ers biggest problem is this year. Keith, what would you say it is? um health. I mean, if you know that the number one is the biggest uh problem like if if we just want to single out one person is the health of Joel Embiid. It’s the biggest question mark. Like you need to know what he’s going to do, right? Um the big thing is everybody wants to know, hey, is he going to play in tomorrow’s preseason game? I probably doubt it, but tomorrow in Abu Dhabi, but overall the health issue is is crazy. I mean, because when we look at it, you talk about you got Joel Embiid, you got Paul George, oh, uh Jared McCain just had surgery yesterday, right? You know, um you know, you you you have um uh Trendan Waford, you know, was limited in practices be because of a hamstring issue. So, right now the 76ers, their biggest problem is can they stay healthy? Are they going to be healthy enough? especially when the playoffs come because this is a wideopen uh Eastern Conference, but the 76ers are going to lose quite a bit if they don’t have their best players out there playing. Yeah, health certainly is is their biggest problem. If you play the fantasy world for a second here, and I don’t mean fantasy basketball, but just live in a fantasy for a second. Uh let’s have a fantasy that the Sixers are healthy this year. Let’s live in the fantasy that Joel Embiid plays 65 to 70 games. He’s never played, I don’t think, in more than 68 games in his entire career in a season. But let’s just live in this world where we’re talking about him him playing 65 games. We’re talking about Paul George playing 70 games. You know, the the biggest problem after that, I think, is who’s controlling the like the point guard, the actual point guard, who’s distributing, who’s finding these guys, who’s making them open, who’s finding them open, who’s getting open. And Maxi is going to be the guy that’s going to be on that ball more often than not. And one of the things we asked going into this off seasonason, Keith, was whether or not Tyrese Maxi was going to increase his court vision, get better at that, finding, you know, find a way to get out of those double teams. Uh he said on media day that he used to criticize Joel Embiid, like I’m wide open, Joe, give me the ball. And he’s like, “Yeah, I can’t find you.” Like, like it’s hard. And now he’s in the position where Tyrese Tyrese Maxi is now in the position where he’s got to find the open guy. He’s doubleteamed and he now understands what Joel Embiid was talking about. The only difference is talking about a guy who’s seven foot versus a guy who’s 6’4. So it’s a little bit more difficult. So I look at it like Tyrese Maxi still got to take that big step forward because either way, health or or no health, injuries, no injuries, a constant is that Tyrese Maxi is going to be the one distributing the basketball, facilitating more than anybody. Exactly. And and it’s crazy that he said that because you know there was a point where he was like, “Hey, that guy is open. Okay, maybe Tyrese has to, you know, mature a little bit as a point guard. But but but he explained it. He accepted it. You know what I mean? And and that is crucial because, you know, we talked about it. You know, here’s the thing with Tyrese in the past. The neck, I mean, the knock was that when teams start blitzing him in the fourth quarter, he would turn the ball over. He would make mistakes. And you always felt like just get the ball out your hands a little bit quicker and sooner, right? We all know that even though he addressed it, teams are still going to play him the same way until they see a change. So that’s what’s going to happen. And when we talked about earlier, we said, you know what, it’s just not about scoring points because, yeah, you were scoring a lot of points, but then the fourth quarter would come and then you would struggle when you had to pass the ball and get rid of it. So to me, that’s why I said, you know, for him, it’s just not about scoring. is about distributing. It’s about getting other people involved, you know, like I still expect him to have probably like um average maybe 27 points, 26, but at the same time, I I expect his his assist total to go up. I expect him to make easier plays to do a lot of things. And with that being said, I think that he’ll be more efficient because last year he averaged that many points, but he shot the ball a lot. I think he’ll be more efficient, but he’ll get other people involved. That’s the biggest that’s the next step that he has to make. And it’s not a knock on him. It’s just that, you know what, he’s been a guy for most of his career, high school, college, wherever he was, it was all about him scoring points. He was a bucket. And that’s what he did. He was quick. He was a matchup problem. He was a bucket. But for them to be successful, he has to be a bucket still. But at the same time, he has to distribute the rock and make sure that other people eat as well. Yeah. What about who runs with him? I mean, you talk about, we’ve talked about Jared McCain a lot. We’ve obviously talked about BJ Hedgecom and whatever happens with Quinton Grimes and this the hour is upon us, by the way. We’ll get to that in a second. But when it comes to who runs with him, how much do you think that’s going to impact how he distributes? Oh, a lot. I think that when Trendan Wford is out there, we’re going to see Tyrese off the ball a lot. I think we’re going to see the slashing Tyrese. I think we’re going to see the Tyrese Maxi that we saw when he played with James Harden. I mean, we think about it when Harden was out there, Tyrese Maxi, you know, he was phenomenal. Like, it was one of those things where you would see Tyrese and it’s like go. It was like he was doing go routes, you know what I mean? He was like AJ Brown getting the ball, you know, right? like he would he would go up the streak up there and next thing you know you would see the long pass or whatever and Tyrese Maxi was like a a one-man transition. I think that with Trendan Waer we’re going to see a lot of Maxi going to the you know going to the cup you know I I I I think that we’ll see him like running to the three doing a lot of different things. So, I do believe yes, it depends on who’s out there. Now, right now, I think that uh VJ Edgecomb is going to be a big beneficiary when Maxi is playing. And also, Maxi, Paul, George, Embiid, if they’re all out there, I think that that’s when we’ll see Maxi. Yeah, he’ll get his, but at the same time, we’ll see a lot of lobs. We’ll see a lot of different things to whereas he’s um contributing a rock to VJ. But I do believe when Trendan Watford’s out there, it’s going to be Maxi is going to be a thriving off the ball. Fair enough. All right. When we come back, we’re going to talk about Grimes watch because today is October 1st. No deadline. What happens now with Quinton Grimes and the Philadelphia 76ers. All that more when we return. This is Locked On 76ers. And now it’s time to tell you about Pelaton. as Pelaton is shaping the future of fitness with brand new Pelaton crossraining tread plus powered by Pelaton IQ. It’s their most advanced equipment yet designed to give you real time guidance and endless ways to move. 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Uh what how does this go down now uh being that it is October 1st and still not signed? I mean I think something happens today before the deadline. I mean well who knows? I mean you you you don’t know like they they keep talking about how they’re far apart. Um but at this particular stage I wouldn’t be unless he got a a balloon deal like a one-year balloon deal. And I’m not talking about like, you know, they’re offering him like the the qualifying offer is like 8.7, but if it’s like I wouldn’t be surprised if he took a balloon deal if it let’s say it was double that money for one year and then he says, “Okay, well then just trade me. I’ll be a free agent next year.” Aside from that, um I can see him just taking a qualifying offer, right? I mean, my thing is, and there’s no offense to Quinton Grimes, and there’s no and and you can see it both ways. You can see Quinton wanting to get paid. You can also see where the 76ers due to the way the roster is constructed and the money that they have available for them to say if we don’t think that we’re going to win a championship this year, I don’t think we’re going to go all in and give you the money that you want because then we’re going to be in the second apron and then guess what? In a couple of years, we’re going to have to get rid of everybody and blow this thing up, right? I I just feel like that they probably think that is a little bit too soon, right? And and unfortunately is uh un is a bad situation for Quinton because he believes that he he deserves that money. He played well when he came here. But I just don’t see the 76ers hitting the go now button when they know that they have to blow everything up. But you’re going to blow it up when you have VJ Edgecom, Jared McCain’s hurt, he’ll come back later, Tyrese Maxi, you want to build around those t those guys down the future. You just don’t want to dispand stuff already. What does your gut tell you when it when it comes to how this gets resolved? Do you think he do you do you think he takes a balloon deal? Because one thing I will say, I I don’t think in any world he is signing some sort of long-term deal around 9 million a year. like I don’t think he’s signing a I just think that that one I think we could all I think we could rule that situation out. So, it’s a matter of whether or not he’s gonna say, “Damn it. All right, fine. 8.7.” Or the Sixers say, “Hey, look, we’re gonna play ball with you. You came in, you played great. We still like what you could do here. 13 14 million for a year and then move on.” That would I think would be more in the realm of possibility as you’re talking about that uh balloon deal type. Yeah, that would be more Yeah. like 13 14 maybe 15. But like if it’s like 9 million, you give up $2 million like to like, you know, 10 mil just to give up, you know, my uh my uh my my trade uh trade exception or whatever. Um I I don’t I don’t know my trade clause. I don’t know if I would do that because you know where you going. See, the problem is if everyone is healthy, Quinton Grimes is not going to have the same stats that he had a year ago. Now, if you do have a trade clause and they say, “Hey, we want to trade you to such and such team.” Well, then yeah. Okay. You mean you want to trade me to the Brooklyn Nets, you want to trade me to the Washington Wizards, you want to trade me to the Charlotte Hornets or or or a team where, you know, he’s going to get numbers? Yeah. But if you going to trade me to another team where I’mma be getting 10 minutes a game, that’s not going to impact me. That’s not going to help my future. Because right now it just seems like for Quinton Grimes and everybody says, “Yeah, you want to win.” And I get it. He wants to win, but right now it’s all about getting that next payday, you know, securing his future. And you got to be careful of where you go or what situation you’re in to get paid because, you know, if he stays here, he’s not going to get paid. He’s just not not at least not right now. Yeah. No, I would agree with that. I would agree with that. All right. Well, we will figure this out as the day goes on. and the 76ers will hopefully figure this out as the day goes on as well. We thank you for making Locked On your first listen every day. For your second listen, how about you check out Locked On Fantasy Basketball. Josh Lloyd hosts the number one fantasy basketball podcast, giving you daily tips and helping you win your league all while making you a smarter NBA fan. Find Locked On Fantasy Basketball on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. For Keith Pompei, I’m Mark Barzetta. Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening. Back with you guys tomorrow and we’ll know whether or not Quinton Grimes will be here for another year. See you then.

Keith and Marc talk about Tyrese Maxey becoming the leader of the team will help the young core improve.

The show also discusses who will be Maxey’s backcourt mate as well as the next step Maxey needs to take in his game.

Segment 1: Meaxey the leader

Segment 2: Maxey’s next step

Segment 3: GRIMES WATCH ZERO HOUR!

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