For the time since Ben Simmons was chosen in 2019, the Sixers have a selection for the Rising Stars Challenge.
That player, unsurprisingly, is Tyrese Maxey. The 21-year-old on Tuesday night was named as one of 12 sophomore Rising Stars.
When Simmons held out of training camp following an offseason trade request, Maxey took the role of starting Sixers point guard. Entering Tuesday night’s NBA action, the team was a half-game out of the Eastern Conference’s top seed and Maxey was averaging 16.8 points, 4.7 assists and 3.5 rebounds. Maxey has made 40.1 percent of his three-point tries after shooting 30.1 percent his rookie season.
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In addition to 12 rookies and 12 sophomores, four G League Ignite players chosen by G League head coaches will participate in the event on Friday, Feb. 18 in Cleveland. They are Scoot Henderson, a projected top 2023 NBA draft pick who won’t turn 18 years old until Thursday, and 2022 prospects MarJon Beauchamp, Dyson Daniels and Jaden Hardy.
Below are the rookies and sophomores picked:
The 28 players will be drafted into four teams, play a three-game mini-tournament, and be coached by members of the NBA’s 75th anniversary team and assistants from the All-Star Game staffs. Full details on the format are here.
Maxey has digested heaps of advice this season — some of it not especially diplomatic — from coaches and teammates. So far, so good with the difficult adjustment to starting at point guard in the NBA.
NBA
All-Star starter Joel Embiid thinks his on-court partnership with Maxey has great potential, too.
“I would hope we take it to a level kind of like me and JJ (Redick),” Embiid said last week. “Obviously that would require him to be a better shooter, which he already is. You can see the confidence that he already has. Guys going under, just shooting the ball and not even thinking about it. And that’s something that I’ve been on him (about) a lot, because you don’t want to build a reputation in the league that you don’t want to shoot the ball, or guys are just going to keep on going under. He’s been taking advantage of it.
“But as far as our two-man game and pick-and-roll, it’s been great, especially with the plays that we run at the ends of games. He’s been hitting me a lot out of that pocket pass. And sometimes he has the opportunity to get to the rim, too. So it’s been great. It’s a work in progress. I think we’ve got a long way to go, but I think we’re already pretty good.”