Tyrese Maxey Sidelined Up To Three Weeks

For a team that has struggled with star players on the injured list, of all the ways to get hurt, a collision with your own teammate with 16 seconds left in a loss is such a Philadelphia 76ers thing. That's exactly how Tyrese Maxey has found himself on the sidelines after colliding with teammate Adem Bona late in Philadelphia's 126-116 loss to Atlanta on Saturday. Maxey, in obvious pain, immediately tucked his hand under his jersey and walked straight to the locker room.  The diagnosis: a tendon injury to his right pinkie, with the team announcing he'll be reevaluated in approximately three weeks.

The timing couldn't be worse. Maxey has been averaging career highs across the board, leading the team with 29 points and 6.7 assists while adding 4.1 rebounds. Maxey’s 29 PPG ranks fourth in the NBA, and is the most by a Sixers guard since Allen Iverson in 2005-06. For a team that missed out on the playoffs last season, Maxey has been the focal point of a team that, when healthy, can compete with any other team in the league. 

However, the key part of that phrase is “when healthy”. So far this season, the Sixers have been without stars Joel Embiid and Paul George for 33 and 37 games, and both are currently sidelined as Embiid deals with a right oblique strain and George is serving a league suspension, leaving the Sixers without three of their top players. Philadelphia has won just six of its last 15 games and now sits in the No. 8 spot in the East, holding onto a Play-In berth, but has teams like Atlanta and Charlotte breathing down their neck, with both teams sitting within two games.  

So who steps up? Coach Nick Nurse will likely rely heavily on rookie guard VJ Edgecombe, who returned against the Grizzlies after missing three games with a bruised back.  Edgecombe will need help from veterans such as Kelly Oubre Jr. and Quentin Grimes to manufacture offense in ways they haven't been asked to all season.

To make the news possibly even worse, Maxey needs to appear in at least four more games to qualify for an All-NBA team consideration. Based on the way he has played up until Saturday, a spot on the second or third team wouldn’t be out of the question. 

For a season that started with little hope and turned into somewhat of a success story, the Sixers now find themselves facing the daunting task of surviving without arguably their best player.