Sixers’ Tyrese Maxey worked on his ‘physicality’ in the offseason: ‘I can’t wait to show the world that’

As fans gear up for the NBA season, 76ers star Tyrese Maxey joined Good Morning America on Tuesday to discuss his preparation leading into the campaign.

Last season, the Sixers were eliminated from the playoffs in the first round by the New York Knicks in a physical six-game series. In Game 6, Maxey’s and-one tied the score at 111 with 34.9 seconds left. But that set the stage for former Villanova guard Josh Hart to take back control for the Knicks with a wide-open three-pointer — eliminating the Sixers at the Wells Fargo Center.

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During the offseason, Maxey trained to ensure an early playoff exit doesn’t happen again.

“I’m just blessed to be able to play another season, man,” Maxey said. “To be healthy at the beginning of this season, I’m just extremely happy for that. On the court, I’ve just been preparing in the weight room a lot. I played in the Knicks series last year and they were extremely physical. And you know, that was my first year kind of being a feature player in a series like that where teams kind of key in on you. So, I knew I had to get my physicality up, I had to get my weight training up.”

Maxey, the NBA’s Most Improved Player last season, finished the Knicks series averaging 29.8 points, 6.8 assists, and 5.2 rebounds. But the 6-foot-2 guard doesn’t want to strictly rely on his physical abilities this season.

“I just want to think the game better and use my mind more instead of using my physical tools and my gifts,” Maxey said. “My God-given abilities, which is my mind and my body. So, that’s the two things I’ve really been working on and I can’t wait to show the world that.”

The Sixers made a lot of moves in the offseason to chase a title — signing nine-time All-Star Paul George, Eric Gordon, Andre Drummond, Caleb Martin, and Reggie Jackson, as well as selecting Jared McCain and Adem Bona in the NBA draft.

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When asked if this will be the year the Sixers win a title, Maxey responded: “That’s always the plan. That’s always ideal. You know, we have to go out there and show the world that. I mean, at the end of the day, right now, we have to put all the pieces together and go out there and actually execute them.

“But I feel like we have the right — shout-out to our front office, they put the right pieces together. They did that. And now it’s our job to go out there and play chess. Coach [Nick] Nurse is someone that we really believe in, who can put pieces together, who does a lot of different things. We have a lot of different interchangeable parts, we can play a lot of different ways and it should be fun.

“We got the players. Now, we just got to go out there and put it on the court.”

The first test for Maxey and the Sixers comes Wednesday in the season opener against the Milwaukee Bucks at the Wells Fargo Center.