Why Didn’t The 76ers Just Pay Tyrese Maxey?
I don’t really know how to start this post out other than by saying that this site is called Vendetta for a reason. This is my way of striking back against the sports industry. Frankly, the rest of you just aren’t good at this and that includes the people getting paid millions of dollars per year to run these teams. Riddle me this; why didn’t the 76ers just pay Tyrese Maxey?
I don’t get it. It doesn’t make a lick of sense. Maxey will be a restricted free agent after the conclusion of this season after the two sides failed to agree to a contract extension. Guess what? Whatever Maxey costed before the season, that number only went up. Probably up in a significant way. Any chance of getting a potential haircut on that contract is out the window.
More than anything, it’s about opportunity. After the James Harden trade, Maxey is in line to be the number two option in Philadelphia. They knew that the second they dumped Harden. That only meant Maxey while playing on a team with the MVP Joel Embiid was going to get those open looks from the outside. Instead of being proactive about it, Philadelphia is going to pay the price for its ineptitude.
Again, this is about opportunity more than anything. With Harden out the door, Maxey was going to get every opportunity to create his own offense. He’s essentially done just that. The former Kentucky product is averaging 27 points per game on over 20 shots per game. Again, they knew this is what was going to happen and Daryl Morey did nothing about it other than sit on his hands.
The biggest mistake these teams make is not paying players the extension after their rookie contract. These players are ascending and only getting better as they head into their prime. Maxey now has all the leverage in the world to request nothing except the max. In fact, he may just mess around and make an All-NBA team. Then what? This is going to be a multi-million mistake that proves consequential against the cap. All because Morey couldn’t figure out that a guy who was going to get 20 shots per game probably needed a new contract.
It’s as dumb as it gets.
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