Stephen A. Smith Wants 76ers To ‘Evolve’ Around Tyrese Maxey, and Not Joel Embiid After 1st Round Exit

Despite over a decade of ‘Trusting The Process’, the Philadelphia 76ers have failed to get the results they were looking for. Last night, they suffered another humiliating first round exit at the hands of the New York Knicks, that too on their own home court. And their continued failure in the postseason has raised major questions to address for the Sixers front office this summer. Amid Philly’s recent struggles, veteran analyst Stephen A. Smith made a suggestion for the Sixers to upgrade, which might involve taking the reins from Joel Embiid and handing them to Tyrese Maxey.

While discussing the Sixers brutal elimination during The Stephen A. Smith Show, the ESPN analyst said, “Tyrese Maxey is a superstar in this league, deserves max dollars, and the franchise needs to evolve around him.” It’s not that Stephen A. believes Maxey is more talented than Embiid. Instead, Smith had high praise for Embiid’s talent and deemed him one of the best Big Man ever. But the major issue with building around Embiid is that “he’s (Embiid) perpetually injured, his durability is not reliable.”

Being younger, more reliable, and hopefully more available in the future than Embiid, Stephen A. claimed, building around Maxey and letting Embiid adjust to that situation might be a better way ahead for the Sixers. Moreover, with Embiid as their leader, the Sixers have never gone past the second round in the playoffs. Every year since he started his career, Embiid has missed games due to some form of injury. Even this season, he missed forty-three games due to a meniscus injury in his knee. And it is hard to stay consistent for a team when their best player is mostly unavailable.

Should the Sixers take Stephen A. Smith’s advice?

While shifting focus from building around a player who won MVP last year and was the frontrunner to win again this year until he got injured might sound like a bad move, Stephen A. Smith might be onto something. Averaging over twenty points in the last two playoffs, Maxey had already proved that he was a decent player. But his shift to becoming a superstar came when the Sixers parted ways with James Harden and let Maxey run the show instead. With that, Maxey significantly increased his scoring average in the regular season to 25.9 and received his first All-Star nod.

Moreover, his performance got even better during the playoffs against the Knicks as he averaged nearly thirty points in the six games. Not only that, he also played the best game of his career in Game 5 at MSG, where he went off for 46 points while also scoring seven points in less than thirty seconds to save Philly’s season for one more game.

According to NBA Insider Shams Charania, Maxey’s dominant performance this season will earn him a max contract extension in the summer. Maximizing on his youth, the Sixers could make Maxey the future of the franchise and build around him. Do you think the Sixers should make that move?