Author: Gabriela Carroll

No one in the NBA has played more minutes than Tyrese Maxey this season.

Without Joel Embiid in the lineup, even more of the Sixers’ offensive load lies on Maxey’s shoulders, and it’s leading to inefficiency in his shot-making.

To play better with — and without — Embiid, coach Nick Nurse said he needs Maxey and the Sixers to play faster. Earlier this season, the Sixers played with “tremendous speed.” But as the season has progressed, they’ve moved away from that play style.

“I just talked to [Embiid] for a long time, and he said the same thing,” Nurse said. “[Embiid said], ‘They need to play faster, even when I’m out there. They wait for me too much. They need to blast ahead and take opportunities that are there, and if they’re not, I’ll get down there eventually to get into some of the halfcourt offensive stuff.’”

On Thursday, Cameron Payne, playing in his first game back with the Sixers after starting the year with Serbian team KK Partizan, got the first minutes in relief of Maxey in the second quarter and again in the fourth. The Sixers lost Payne’s fourth-quarter minutes, 11-7, and Payne missed all three of his three-point attempts in his return to the NBA. But he dished out four quick assists in the second quarter and has familiarity with much of the roster.

Payne played 31 games under Nurse after the Sixers acquired him at the trade deadline in 2024. While some things are similar to his last stint, Payne says there still are several new plays to learn, and he needed to get back into NBA shape after the time away from the league.

“They play a lot faster,” Payne said. “I feel like we played fast when I was here, but they play a lot faster now.”

Nurse hopes they’ll get even quicker. But to maintain that, Maxey and VJ Edgecombe especially need to have fresher legs. Edgecombe already has played more games this season than he did all of 2024-25 at Baylor.

Nurse said that Maxey and Edgecombe’s speed and athleticism are among their biggest strengths, and the Sixers need to leverage it even more to find success down the stretch. But if players like Payne are able to come in and become playmakers on offense, that can help buoy the team in tough minutes and give Maxey more rest opportunities.

“I thought early in the year, our guards were creating offense for each other a lot more,” Nurse said. “Remember all the VJ to Tyrese, all the stuff with [Quentin Grimes], and that has gotten a little less.

“But I think that’s what [Payne] did last night. He came in and just hit through, ran the screen roll, got in the paint, boom, it’s out. Or even just simple throw-aheads, catch-and-shoots. … That’s what we need, is more creation for others, more hitting the paint and not trying to play through the gauntlet and then hitting the paint and getting it out a little.”

On media day at the start of the season, Nick Nurse said the Sixers were building their game plan around not having Joel Embiid in the lineup. If they had him, great. If not, no big deal.

That plan worked in early stretches. The Sixers opened the season a perfectly respectable 10-7 in their first 17 games without Embiid on the floor, while going 7-7 in their first 14 games with the former MVP.

When the calendar turned to 2026, Embiid suddenly was available more than he had been in a long time, missing just three games in January. Embiid played at an All-Star level, and the Sixers went 10-7 for the month. But they dropped all three games Embiid missed.

Now, with Embiid sidelined with right shin soreness, the Sixers have lost three straight, the latest being a home loss Thursday to Atlanta.

“I don’t anticipate it being a long time,” Nurse said of how long before Embiid returns. “I’m pretty optimistic about it.”

The Sixers are 1-7 in their last eight games without Embiid.

“He’s a walking 30 points,” VJ Edgecombe said. “We miss Joel; he’s a big presence. He requires so much gravity, so now all the attention is on Tyrese [Maxey], and we’ve got to make his job easier.”

With Embiid out of the lineup, defenses hyperfocus on Maxey, who regularly faces double teams and traps. Theoretically, that should open up space for other players, like Edgecombe, Kelly Oubre Jr., and Quentin Grimes.

Without Embiid, Edgecombe said, the burden is on the rest of the players to create more of their own offense, instead of relying on the pick-and-roll game with Embiid or on just finding Embiid in the paint.

“It’s easy, man,” Edgecombe said. “You can just hit Joel, and he’s going to score. No one can guard him.”

Those stylistic differences from game to game even are challenging for more experienced players like Maxey. Dealing with defensive coverages in games without Embiid has led to a decrease in Maxey’s overall efficiency.

Since Jan. 1, Maxey is shooting 46.8% from the field. In the games without Embiid, he has shot 38.4%. Maxey’s total points scored don’t take too much of a hit — he’s averaged 26.5 points in 2026, and that number only drops to 24 in games without Embiid — but it takes a lot more effort to get him there.

“We’re playing multiple styles of basketball,” Tyrese Maxey said. “That’s why I said for myself a couple games ago, it’s weird. I’ve had a successful year, but I’ve played three different roles.”

A big part of that inefficiency, Nurse said, is that Maxey’s shots inside the three-point line are virtually always contested. Without Embiid, Maxey is the Sixers’ primary offensive engine, and he draws a huge amount of respect from opposing defenses.

The extensive time with Embiid back in January “probably” is forcing the team back into a learning curve as they adjust back to playing without him, Grimes said.

But the biggest point of emphasis has been for Embiid’s teammates to just keep taking their own shots.

“Guys got to make plays,” Maxey said. “Just got to go out there and be aggressive. Don’t be nervous or scared to make a play and make a mistake. Be aggressive, man, go out there, and just play.”

The life of an NBA draft pick can be a long and winding road — long before a team ever considers which player they might take with that selection. Picks are traded years in advance, and by the time draft night actually comes around, many have changed hands two or even three times.

One of those long and winding roads led the Sixers to young superstar Tyrese Maxey, who will make his first NBA All-Star Game start and second appearance on Sunday. Maxey is having a career-best season, leading the Sixers firmly back into the playoff race as he’s become the team’s No. 1 scoring option.

But the journey to acquire Maxey started long before Adam Silver called his name on that stage in 2020, five months after the draft was originally supposed to take place — and more than six years after the wheels were initially set in motion by the Spencer Hawes trade.

Here’s everything that happened in order for the Sixers to ultimately draft Maxey …

Feb. 20, 2014: The Sixers were in the early stages of The Process, selling off players to stockpile as many draft picks as possible. In one of those moves, then general manager Sam Hinkie acquired Earl Clark, Henry Sims, and two second-round picks (Cleveland’s and Memphis’) from the Cavaliers for Hawes.

June 26, 2014: The Sixers used one of those picks to draft Jerami Grant with the No. 39 overall pick (initially Cleveland’s pick). Grant was a role player for the Sixers for a little over two seasons, averaging 8.2 points in 24.2 minutes, but went on to have a long NBA career — he’s still playing — and turned into a starter that has eclipsed the 20-point per game mark three times.

Nov. 1, 2016: Two games into the 2016-17 season, the Sixers traded Grant to acquire veteran forward Ersan Ilyasova and Oklahoma City’s 2020 first-round pick. The pick was top-20 protected, meaning it would only convey if the Thunder finished with the 21st draft pick or lower.

June 22, 2017: The Sixers traded that 2020 pick and Brooklyn’s 2020 second-round pick to Orlando for the draft rights to Latvian center Anžejs Pasečņiks. Pasečņiks, now 30, played just 28 games in the NBA with Washington.

Feb. 7, 2019: The Sixers reacquired the 2020 first-round pick from Orlando — along with Jonathon Simmons and the rights to Cleveland’s second-rounder — for Markelle Fultz. The Sixers had traded up to first overall in 2017 to draft Fultz, who struggled with injuries and played just 33 games across two seasons for the team.

March 2020: COVID-19 canceled the NCAA Tournament. Maxey was playing for John Calipari at Kentucky, who won the regular season SEC championship and was poised to earn a top-2 seed in the NCAA tournament. That meant Maxey, who averaged 14 points in the regular season, wouldn’t get a chance to showcase his skills on college basketball’s biggest stage. The shutdown also impacted Maxey’s opportunity to meet in person with NBA teams during the pre-draft process.

Aug. 12, 2020: Former Sixer Mike Muscala hit a pair of late three-pointers to lift the Thunder over the Heat in Oklahoma City’s penultimate game in the NBA’s “COVID bubble.” The win pushed the Thunder ahead of the Heat in the standings and out of the top 20 in the draft order, ensuring the Sixers would secure the first-round pick that originally belonged to OKC.

Nov. 18, 2020: Maxey falls to the Sixers with the 21st pick after 19 other teams — including the Timberwolves twice — passed on the Kentucky guard.

The NBA All-Star break has finally arrived for the Sixers, and it couldn’t have come at a better time for the team’s three most important pieces: Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, and VJ Edgecombe.

“I think everybody’s looking forward to it,” coach Nick Nurse said of the time off. “I think we need it. It’ll be pretty good timing for us.”

Yes, Wednesday’s 138-89 loss to the New York Knicks was embarrassing, but despite the Sixers’ ups and downs this season, they are firmly in a playoff spot. Still, the Sixers need a physical and mental reset, even if some of their stars won’t be entirely off.

Maxey will be heading to Los Angeles as an All-Star Game starter, with Edgecombe in tow to play in the Rising Stars game. But Embiid will have a full, much-needed weeklong break.

Embiid missed his second consecutive game Wednesday with right knee soreness. Quentin Grimes also missed Wednesday’s game, while Dominick Barlow, who missed the final game of the road trip at Portland, returned to play 30 minutes, 37 seconds on Wednesday.

Nurse said before Wednesday’s game that there was “not a ton of concern” about Embiid’s knee long-term.

Embiid has appeared in 31 of the Sixers’ 54 games so far this year, skipping one leg of back-to-backs and missing most of November. But since that month, Embiid has quickly rounded back into form.

“He’ll still tell you that he’s — I don’t know, you can have him tell you — but still not near 100%, not close,” Nurse said. “I think that’s encouraging because he’s starting to look pretty good again in a lot of different areas.”

Some might consider Embiid’s exclusion from the All-Star Game a snub, but because of the break, the Sixers don’t play again until Feb. 19.

That’s a full week for Embiid to stay off his knee and recover while the Sixers can stay locked into their sixth-place spot in the East. Since January, the Sixers are 12-5 with Embiid in the lineup, and 1-5 without him.

“It’s hard,” Maxey said of playing without Embiid. “You go from one way to play without him early in the season, he comes back, you’ve got to play that way, then play a different way when he’s there — which is OK, it’s fine. It’s the reality of it, and we’ll be all right. I think he’ll be here more than he isn’t here when we get back, and we’ve just got to maintain those games that he’s not there.”

It’s not just Embiid who can benefit from the time off. Edgecombe will be competing in the Rising Stars event at All-Star Weekend, but the rookie, who has played in 50 of the Sixers’ 54 games, will get a brief, needed reprieve from the grind of the NBA schedule.

“He’s never played these type of minutes in his life,” Maxey said. “Even playing a 40-minute basketball game in college is way different than this. … We’re asking him to do a lot, so he’s probably definitely tired, but it’s OK. This is what the break is for.”

Entering the final game before the break, Edgecombe averaged 35.4 minutes, the most of any rookie, and ranked ninth in the NBA. Edgecombe played just 33 games at Baylor last year.

Edgecombe ended Wednesday night with 14 points on 6-for-16 shooting, displaying his incredible physical tools and his recent shooting woes. Early in his career, Maxey learned how seriously he needs to take recovery in order to keep playing big NBA minutes.

“I used to be like, ‘I don’t need treatment.’ I thought I was Superman,” Maxey said.

He’s making sure Edgecombe is taking that feedback.

But there might not be anyone on the team who needs rest more than Maxey. He has taken on the role as the Sixers’ top offensive option, and he is playing a career- and league-high 38.6 minutes per game.

Maxey has also made 52 starts and played the most games of anyone on the Sixers. He scored 32 points in 32:07 on Wednesday but sat for the entire fourth quarter of the blowout. He’ll get a little less rest than his teammates, since he’s making his first All-Star Game start — and taking part in Saturday night’s three-point contest — but said he still would make plenty of time for relaxation.

“I just want to get out there and just chill, sit in my hotel room, relax, get some good weather,” Maxey said. “I’ll get some relaxation and be good to go by Thursday.”