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One of the biggest storylines last season for the Philadelphia 76ers was the emergence of Tyrese Maxey. After playing sparingly as a rookie, the former first-round pick was thrust into a full-time starting position. Even while adjusting to a new role, Maxey quickly proved why he was arguably the biggest steal of his draft class.
While Maxey’s game took a big leap from year one to year two, there is one key area of development that gets brought up regularly. His three-point shooting. Looking at his lone college season to now, there is a night and day difference in Maxey’s ability to space the floor.
At Kentucky, Maxey shot 29.2% from beyond the arc on roughly four attempts per game. In his first season as a pro, he connected on 30.1% of his threes. Last year, Maxey’s efficiency shot all the way up to 42.7%. Bleacher Report’s Greg Swarts recently opened up on how crucial this development is for the Sixers when ranking the league’s top big threes.
Maxey has always been a terror to stop in transition, but it’s his evolution as an outside threat that couldn’t have been more perfect next to Embiid and Harden.
After making just 32.3 percent of his catch-and-shoot three-pointers as a rookie, Maxey increased his efficiency to a whopping 45.1 percent on no-dribbles threes last season. His 42.7 percent mark from three ranked third overall in the NBA and was even better off passes from Harden (55.6 percent).
Following James Harden entering the mix post All-Star break, Maxey averaged 18.7 PPG and shot 48% from deep.
Sixers go All-In on Three-Point Shooting
This offseason, wing depth and three-point shooting were the main points of emphasis for Daryl Morey as he retooled the roster around Joel Embiid and James Harden. Thanks to the selfless act of the All-Star point guard, the team was able to go out and sign veteran wings Danuel House Jr. and P.J. Tucker in free agency.
When discussing some of the main takeaways from free agency, NBA.com’s John Schuhmann cited the Sixers’ plethora of outside shooters. He also noted that they have the second-most players who shot league average or better from three on at least 100 attempts (6).
Second are the Philadelphia 76ers, who have six players who shot better than the league average on at least 100 3-point attempts last season, having lost Danny Green (one of five on their end-of-season roster), but added Danuel House (37.6%), De’Anthony Melton (37.4%) and P.J. Tucker (41.5%). They’re followed by the Hawks (who had a league-leading nine to end the season), Charlotte, Miami and Milwaukee, who have six each.
De’Anthony Melton Hard at Work in Offseason
Because of all the moves Daryl Morey executed in free agency, his acquisition of De’Anthony on draft night hasn’t been talked about much. Currently, the 24-year-old is hard at work as he prepares for his first season with his new team. Videos have surfaced on social media of him working on multiple areas of his game.
Like some other NBA players, Melton has made an appearance at the Drew League to get some live reps in before training camp gets underway.
Melton played in 73 games for the Memphis Grizzlies last season, and in that time averaged 10.8 PPG, 4.5 RPG, and 2.7 APG.
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