Tyrese Maxey injury: 76ers star out multiple weeks with hamstring strain, further delaying debut of Big Three

Another Philadelphia 76ers star has been sidelined. Tyrese Maxey has a strained right hamstring and will be reevaluated in about a week, the team announced Thursday. 

Maxey is expected to be out for multiple weeks, as first reported by ESPN’s Shams Charania and confirmed by CBS Sports’ Bill Reiter. In the Sixers’ 110-98 loss against the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday, Maxey left the game late in the third quarter because of the injury and did not return.

Maxey, 24, has averaged 27.6 points, 3.9 assists and 3.0 rebounds for the banged-up Sixers this season. He has also averaged a league-high 39.7 minutes, and he’s the only player in the NBA who has logged 40-plus minutes in four games. Philadelphia is going to “take a cautious approach” with the injury, and Maxey is scheduled to have a “full evaluation” on Thursday, per ESPN’s Shams Charania. T

After earning rave reviews for their offseason, in which they signed star wing Paul George (along with numerous veteran role players), the Sixers are just 1-6 as a result of injuries. When healthy, they could be championship contenders, but 11 years after embarking on “The Process,” this season will be, at best, another exercise in delayed gratification. Franchise player Joel Embiid, who started the season on the shelf to manage a left knee injury, will make his season debut at home against the New York Knicks next Tuesday after serving a three-game suspension for shoving a reporter in the locker room. George has played in Philadelphia’s last two games — a loss against the Phoenix Suns on Monday and a loss in Los Angeles on Wednesday — after missing the first five games because of a bone bruise in his left knee, an injury he suffered in the preseason.

With far less firepower than expected, Philadelphia asked its youngest star to push himself in terms of minutes and playmaking responsibility. Maxey’s efficiency suffered — his career-low 28.2% true shooting percentage cannot be separated from his career-high 30% usage rate, and he has attempted 8.1 pull-up 3s per game, converting them at a 28.2% clip — but, on the bright side, he’ll return to a completely different role … as long as there isn’t more bad news in the next couple of weeks.

The Sixers are fortunate that, aside from the Cleveland Cavaliers (9-0) and the Boston Celtics (7-2), no team in the Eastern Conference has an above-.500 record. Their rough start is much more understandable than the Milwaukee Bucks‘, and they shouldn’t be judged harshly before their new trio has even shared the court. It is fair, though, to wonder if they were asking too much of Maxey during this stretch. This is a soft-tissue injury, after all.

Without Maxey and Embiid, Philadelphia will visit the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday and host the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday. After the game against the Knicks, the Sixers will have their first back-to-back of the season on Wednesday at home against the Cleveland Cavaliers. In Maxey’s absence, expect veteran guard Kyle Lowry to start at point guard. 

Lowry, 38, has already started four games for Philly this season, but returned to a bench role when George entered the lineup. It’ll be worth watching his minutes, given that he’s in Year 19 and has not reached the 30-minute mark this season. Reggie Jackson will presumably step into Lowry’s role as the backup point guard, and the Sixers will have to find ways to make up for Maxey’s offense beyond simply asking George to do everything. That might mean more opportunities for reserve guards Eric Gordon, Jared McCain and Ricky Council IV.

In theory, once Embiid returns, Philadelphia should be able to get going, even without Maxey. A starting lineup featuring Lowry, Kelly Oubre Jr. and Caleb Martin next to George and Embiid projects to be good at both ends, and Nurse can stagger Embiid and George in the rotation. The team will likely be careful with Embiid’s minutes, though, and both he and team president Daryl Morey told ESPN’s Tim Bontemps last month that he’s unlikely to play back-to-backs. (The same might go for George.) This means that, at times, even after Embiid’s suspension, the Sixers will have none of their stars on the court, and those minutes could be extremely ugly.

Part of the appeal of a Big 3 is that having three stars makes it easier to withstand an injury to any of them. When two are hurt, though, teams constructed this way are left with one overburdened star and a bunch of complementary players. George is going to have a lot on his shoulders in the short term, and Embiid’s impending return will alleviate some of that. It would be easier to ease Embiid back, though, if Maxey were available and George were not coming off an injury himself. 

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