PHILADELPHIA, PA — The Philadelphia 76ers a 1-3 on the young season after a disappointing loss against the Detroit Pistons. Once again, offensive struggles plagued the Sixers, who could only muster 95 against the, at the time, 0-4 Pistons.
It doesn’t take long, watching the Sixers’ offense, to notice how disjointed and uncomfortable the group looks. That’s common for a team that saw drastic change just a few months ago, but the issue is especially prevalent without two of the team’s top three stars.
While some of the team’s issues will be solved by the return of Joel Embiid and Paul George, there remains no public timeline on when that might be. In the meanwhile, and even thereafter, Tyrese Maxey will play a featured role in bringing this team’s offense together as its primary facilitator.
After the game, Maxey sat down with media members, looking back on the loss and looking forward to right the ship. Amongst the topics, Maxey discussed his role as the team’s primary facilitator and what has to happen for the offense to build chemistry.
“[There were] a couple plays where I got downhill and tried to skip it and tried to create second side action,” Maxey said. “We [have] to shoot some of those. Coach showed a couple clips today of me and somebody else get into the paint, collapsing defense, kicking it out, and we got to shoot them, no matter who it is.”
Maxey believes in his teammates and in their ability as defenders. It’s why he remains confident that the shots will eventually start to fall if his teammates take them when open.
“We work every day,” Maxey said. “Guys work on their games every day, and they can shoot.”
Maxey also addressed his desire to improve his chemistry with Caleb Martin, which, as he described, involves Maxey setting him up and Martin knocking down the open shot.
“I tell Caleb all the time, ‘l want you to shoot as many open threes as you can.’ [At the] beginning of the game, I drove in, kicked it to him, he shot, he missed it, I got it back, drove it again, kicked right back to him, [and told] him to shoot it because that’s the only way that it’s gonna open up all of us.”
The Sixers are far from a finished product. Embiid and George will one day—likely—return and Daryl Morey will surely spend every moment planning ahead for the NBA trade deadline in February, but the team’s chemistry is ever-building.
It’s been uglier than expected initially, but it is a long season. The Sixers have 78 more games to build the chemistry necessary to compete come the postseason. However, they should figure it out as soon as possible to avoid any possibility of missing it entirely.
