Tyrese Maxey leveled up. Again.

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How good is Tyrese Maxey right now. This detailed film breakdown & scouting report explores Maxey’s unique driving game, why he’s the king of goofy foot finishing, his incredible 3-point shooting, release speed, passing and playmaking analysis and what he can do to improve even more.

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Music by csus (instrumental)

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Tyrese Maxi was the NBA’s most improved player two years ago. He’s taken another leap this season, and I’m wondering if this 25-year-old can get even better moving forward. Maxi’s a blur on the basketball court in the absolute top tier of straight line speed with explosive acceleration off the dribble. And with his handle and burst, he’s nearly impossible to stay in front of. This isn’t even the sharpest cut. He’s just moving so fast that Avita Zubots takes one step and can’t react in time. So because of Maxi’s speed, he doesn’t need huge lateral changes in direction. The big man here is only slightly out of position and Tyrese squeezes through like he was shot out of a cannon. And he has great spatial awareness for these tiny creases when a defender jumps in front of him. This feel can show up in pick and roll. The big man overcommits to one side here. Boom. Maxi launches himself out the other and it’s free throws. And it shows up off ball as well. His defender gets a little too high denying him. So Maxi explodes back door. And check out the body control at the end. Maxi’s finishing fascinates me. He has these incredible quick leaning layups like this, but to throw off shot blockers, he’ll also do this off of his right leg before shooting. Tyrese is the king of the same hand, same leg, or goofy foot finishing. And he’ll do it with his right hand and right leg, or left-handed off the left leg. And the idea is to throw off the shot blocker’s timing by jumping a step early, attacking the basket. According to Second Spectrum, no one in the NBA has taken or made more goofyfooted layups than Maxi this season. No one’s even close. And he’s shooting an impressive 61% on these shots inside 8 ft. He’s very comfortable off his right leg in general, using it to take an extra step to finish here. And this is great feel to go by the defender. Then look at his hips and legs contort as he hangs in the air, man. So, these are really hard shots, and he shot them well in close since last season, but they’re a little less effective out at 10 or 12 feet away. So, in addition to throwing off shot blockers, he’s also taking off early to avoid traffic. But the degree of difficulty on some of these shots can be incredibly high. Take a play like this. What happens if Maxi takes another dribble here and draws a shot blocker out instead of this maniacal scoop shot? It’s a subtle idea, but mixing more two-step finishes might help his teammates more because that extra dribble draws the help defender to him. Although here he goofy foots the lob. That is awesome. In addition to all these same legs, same hand finishes, Maxi can use that speed to get to a more traditional floater game. And the dude has a variety of completely unhinged mid-range shots, which I suppose is why they call him Mad Maxi. I mean, what is that? He can also get to mid-range pull-ups by just stopping on a dime and fading a bit. And I love when he’s driving, just suddenly sticks a foot in the ground, pivots, and fires a midi. So, he’s combining his speed, breaking, and ball handling to cook dudes out there. And you can really see some of his shooting skill and acumen on these spinning mid-range shots. Which brings us to the big shooting question with Tyrese. How many three-point shooters in the game are better right now? His release speed typically clocks in above half a second or so from pickup. That’s not quite Steph Curry speeds, but it’s pretty fast. That last one was under.5. So, at times he flirts with a lightning quick holster. That means he can dribble into the smallest pocket of space and rise and fire. And the range on some of these is absurd. He currently leads the league in threes made outside of 27 feet. And overall, Maxi shooting 40% from downtown on nearly 10 attempts per game on pace to become just the fifth player ever to shoot 40% with at least nine attempts per contest. And he’s a movement shooter as well. Surprise U-turn here. Flies off the screen and just rips it. He doesn’t have to curl that screen either. Fading the route a little here because he can crank it from deep. I I’ve been meaning to talk to you about something. You’re finally taking me to a game. I’m not taking you to a game. Why not? I don’t know how to say this, but SeatGeek’s not letting you, right? The thing is Seat Geek. No, no, no. See, that they’re great. They’re the number one ticketing app for a reason, my friend. Concerts, festivals, basketball, they have 70,000 listed events. So, if people want to see Tyrese Maxi, they can open up the app, search for when he comes to town, and then each ticket is rated on that 1 to 10 scale, so you know if you’re getting a good deal. I love this preview from The Seat as well. That’s why they have such a high rating in the app store. Exactly. And if you want to help out thinking basketball, you can use the promo code thinking 10 for 10% off your next set of SeatGeek tickets. Click the link and the code will automatically be added to your account. That’s 10% off with the code thinking 10. So, we’re gonna go see Philly, right? He also loves to shoot these off of handoffs. And he can shoot them coming uphill away from the basket. The Bucks want to switch this moving screen, but they’re way too far off given his range. So, Tyrese is a valuable offball player. He can attack off the catch when flying around screens. And if he doesn’t catch and shoot from deep, he attacks closeouts quickly and uses that speed. He’s also an intuitive cutter, face cutting right by Assar Thompson here before nashing out the other side. And we know he feels overplays well to back door into space with all of his quickness. And what’s key here is these cuts blend with his shooting. He backdoors this, but to avoid cutting into the ball handler, he fades to the corner. And that is a crazy highle shot. And we’ve already seen some gravitational effects from all this with multiple defenders chasing him off screens or just generally panicking about him off ball, which frees up teammates. Defenses have actually thrown a ton of attention at him this year. Whether it’s helping on him in early offense or trapping him constantly in pick and roll so he can’t turn the corner. The Nets just outright doubled him for huge stretches of their game just to get the ball out of his hands. And I love how patient he was after seeing that double, waiting for it to come. It never does. So he threads a quick pass to the middle and that is a zone buster. Now, because he’s only about 6’2, these traps can bother him. He also doesn’t have a good short roll partner in these spots. Although, I think he has Dominic Barlo here, but doesn’t trust it or wants the home run instead. Yet, despite some bumps, he’s still creating a ton of offense for role players when defenses send so many bodies at him. He has a nice live dribble delivery on these passes. This one’s basic but effective. and his best passes are right off the bounce coming downhill on his drives like this. He’s also pretty good out in transition. This is a nice crosscourt dime with some pace and he’s pretty good about outlets or hit aheads in early offense situations. This was a really interesting one against Chicago. Maxis collecting the ball and then we suddenly see a touchdown pass. But if we watch the entire court, he takes a second to recognize the advantage and I think this is a touch late and he does miss passes sometimes. This is open for a moment and then he gets hit on the pass but it’s uncalled. And there are similar spots in transition here. He has a wide open layup but even at the end never throws it because of his size. We’ve talked about that roll man here. He comes off and misses Barlo over the top for a layup. Then the corner pass is low. And this one’s really fascinating. He doesn’t hit the roller in the pocket or over the top. Doesn’t look for the shooter when they help on the roller. And the corner is open, but look at that pass. Instead of going over the top, it’s the most unique bounce pass I’ve seen all year. And in some of these plays, he’s actually had clear windows to shoot as well and has taken neither the shot nor made the elite pass. So, right now, he’s a little bit like Damen Lillard. Tons of shooting and dribble penetration without high-end passing. But I’m almost less interested in him suddenly becoming a great passer and more curious about him scaling that threepoint volume while staying active off ball because that’s going to enhance his gravitational footprint and chase that Steph Curry impact that we’ve discussed. He’s already among the league leaders in scoring volume and estimated playmaking impact while being a massive turnover suppressor for the offense. And Philadelphia has even been better on defense when he’s played. His defense is a bit outside the scope here. Will have an extra four members on it. But overall, Tyrese’s flashing superstar impact to start this young season. Since becoming an all-star two years ago, he’s shown a solid ability to improve his teammates efficiency. But his key to offensive mega stardom, to continue to level up, might be following the blueprint of great movement shooters. And if Tyrese Maxi can do that, he could contend for an MVP. To support this channel, patreon.com/thinking basketball. That’s where we have proprietary stats on teams and players throughout the year. We also have a Discord community and you can get all of our extra video content over there or sign up on YouTube as a member where we also live stream the podcast. Thanks for watching all the way to the end on this one. Hope you enjoyed it and that you are having a great day.