PHILADELPHIA, PA – MARCH 14: Matisse Thybulle #22 of the Philadelphia 76ers puts his arm around Tyrese Maxey #0 against the Denver Nuggets at the Wells Fargo Center on March 14, 2022 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Nuggets defeated the 76ers 114-110. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
The rise of Tyrese Maxey has been a key to the Philadelphia 76ers season, particularly with all the uncertainty around Ben Simmons and then question marks on the form of James Harden.
Maxey has been a glowing constant for the 76ers, but his presence is masking a devastating issue. Aside from he and Joel Embiid, Philadelphia’s development inadequacies may be costing them an NBA championship.
Excluding Embiid, the 76ers’ early draft selections in recent years make for bad reading – Evan Turner (pick two, 2010), Jahlil Okafor (pick three, 2015), Ben Simmons (pick one, 2016), and Markelle Fultz (pick one, 2017). It’s easy to point at these players as signs of team development issues, but that’s already been discussed ad nauseam, so let’s dive deeper into more recent times.
Tyrese Maxey is masking obvious developmental issues with Philadelphia 76ers
I want to focus on three players specifically, all between the ages of 24 and 25, with three to five years of experience – Furkan Korkmaz, Shake Milton, and Matisse Thybulle. None were lottery picks, with Thybulle taken at pick 20 in 2019, Korkmaz at pick 26 in 2016, and Milton at pick 54 in 2018.
You’re not necessarily tearing roofs down at ‘missing’ on these selections, but the issue is that for a long time, these looked like great value, astute selections by the 76ers. But in a period where players should be getting exponentially better across their first few years, why have these three plateaued and decreased in terms of…
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