Tyrese Maxey’s MVP Case
The seeds for Maxey’s current MVP-caliber season were planted when he was in second grade, when his dad, Tyrone Maxey, started watching film with the young superstar to be…
His parents said they knew when Tyrese Maxey was just five years old that he would play in the NBA, but its dubious even they could have predicted he would one day universally be considered one of the best guards in the league, and be mentioned in MVP conversations.
Five years ago, Tyrese Maxey promised #Sixers fans they wouldn’t regret drafting him ⏪️
Today he’s an MVP candidate. pic.twitter.com/x21Kc3VBbZ
— Vote The Process (@VoteTheProcess) December 14, 2025
Maxey begun his 76ers career as a high-octane, hair-on-fire, raw speedster who provided vital energy, effort, and scoring. He was drafted as just a nice-to-have piece and arguably a Ben Simmons backup.
He has since transformed himself into one of the most elite all-around point guards in the NBA as today he is a threat to hit any shot on the court, has unique full-court vision, holds his own on defense, and is one of the most creative finishers in the league.
On this version of the Sixers, Maxey is no longer just a nice-to-have, but often the sole reason the team is able to pull out victories from the jaws of defeat with Embiid and Paul George’s rampant lack of health and consistency.
The team emphatically rallies around him every night, knowing he is now the most reliable Sixers star and scorer, and it will be his play that leads this team into the playoffs if they are able to make it there.
Although it took years for him to become the well-rounded top-5 PG he is today, Maxey showed Philadelphia how talented he was when he was still in the teething stage of his NBA career.
In Maxey’s first start in the NBA, during a COVID game in which the 76ers had just seven players available, he put up 39 points, foreshadowing how willingly he rises to embrace the moment .
Tyrese Maxey showed Sixers fans early on how talented he was, scoring 39 in his first NBA start.
Today he’s universally considered one of the best PGs in the league. pic.twitter.com/HpP1L0xZS5
— Vote The Process (@VoteTheProcess) December 16, 2025
Sidenote: Imagine seeing that and then starting Ben Simmons over him in maybe the most pivotal playoff game in the Joel Embiid era…
Since that early show of talent, Maxey has improved his points per game every single season of his career, and his improvement was widely recognized across the NBA when he won Most Improved Player of the Year for his 2023-2024 performance.
In an interview with V.J. Edgecombe before the start of the season, Tyrese Maxey said, “Every single day I try to work on my game. I want to get better. I want to maximize my potential. When its all said and done I want to be able to say I don’t want to have no ‘what ifs’… I want to be able to say hey man I did all I could.”
This season, Maxey has done exactly that as he appears to be in the peak of his career while placing among the league’s leaders in a number of statistics.
So far through the first few months of the 2025-2026 season, Maxey ranks:
- 3rd in PPG
- Tied for 4th in 3PM per game
- Tied for 5th in FGM per game
- Tied for 5th in steals per game (per ESPN)
- 9th in assists per game
- 9th in usage percentage
One of the incredible aspects of Mad Maxey’s evolution is that he somehow managed to become the all-around elite player that we see today without sacrificing his Tasmanian Devil-like breakneck pace or his trademarked explosiveness.
Maxey is currently tied with Giannis for the league-lead in fast break points per game with 5.9, ranks third in passes per game, and leads the NBA in distance run per game with an average of 2.8 miles per game, 0.2 miles more than the next-closest player (per NBA.com).
Maxey is both a driver and a shooter, and is a true threat to rise up and swish the ball through the net anytime he has a one-on-one matchup, and this season he’s scoring in all phases and from all levels of the court.
He currently sits at 2nd in the NBA in FGM in the restricted area, 5th in above the break three FGM, 17th in FGM in the paint, and 19th in mid-range FGM.
Need more evidence of Maxey’s insanely diverse scoring ability like you’re fucking addicted to it? (definitely not talking about myself here).
He leads the NBA in score frequency off of screens and ranks: Seventh in average drive points, seventh in average drive points and eighth in drive FGM, 11th in average pull up points, 14th in average points as a pick & roll ball-handler, and 21st in points per possession in isolation (according to NBA.com).
Today, Maxey also sits at second to only Giannis in average transition points and average transition FGM.
His 54 points against the Milwaukee Bucks in the 76ers’ 123-114 overtime win earlier this year were also the fourth-most any player has scored in a single game this season.
Considering the aforementioned offensive statistics, the fact that Maxey has any energy at all to give on the defensive side should inject life-threatening fear into the rest of the NBA.
Other teams should consider themselves cats, and Maxey the vacuum cleaner.
In addition to his league-leading offensive analytics, Maxey is 13th in player efficiency rating and 26th in defensive win shares among all positions.
He ranks fourth among guards in blocks per game and seventh in Player Impact Estimate as well.
Although Tyrese is widely considered a relative long-shot to win MVP compared to Jokic or SGA, the mere fact that he is being mentioned among those names and is statistically competing with them (5th in the NBA in overall box plus/minus and 3rd to only Jokic and SGA in Value Over Replacement Player) despite clearly having much less surrounding talent and organizational competence is a testament to Maxey’s incredible, MVP-worthy skillset and consistent performance.
In addition to the revelation that his parents claimed to have known Tyrese Maxey would be an NBA player since he was five years old, during the 2020 NBA Draft, Maxey ended his emotional post-draft interview with, “Thank you Philadelphia for this opportunity, I promise you it won’t be a regret.”
Safe to say Maxey kept the tearful guarantee made five years ago.
Right now, ESPN gives him the sixth-best odds to be considered the most valuable player in the league while the 76ers have the sixth-best record in the Eastern Conference amidst a season that has maybe the most palpable excitement since Allen Iverson took the floor.
