Inside Sixers: Joel ‘The Process’ Embiid crowns Tyrese ‘The Franchise’ Maxey, and more from an 8-1 start

As a celebratory 76ers locker room filtered out Sunday night, Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid lingered behind.

“Who gave you that nickname?” Embiid playfully asked Maxey. “You the franchise.”

The exchange between the NBA’s reigning Most Valuable Player and the rapidly ascending guard naturally occurred following Maxey’s 50-point outburst against the Indiana Pacers, setting a new career high and becoming the first Sixers guard since Allen Iverson to reach that scoring total as part of his spectacular start to the 2023-24 season.

It also coincidentally came nearly one year to the day since Embiid dropped his career-best 59 points on the Utah Jazz on Nov. 13, 2022. And it provides further fuel during this torrid 8-1 start that Embiid and Maxey represent the Sixers’ new core, and that anyone who was acquired in the blockbuster James Harden trade should complement that duo.

» READ MORE: Tyrese Maxey’s career-high 50 points propel Sixers to victory over Indiana Pacers

That is possible in part because Embiid does not just accept taking a backseat to the fourth-year guard, even on nights that began with him scoring 19 points in the first quarter. Embiid does not just do it happily. He encourages it to happen.

“He’s on me every single day,” Maxey said after the game. “It’s literally like big brother, little brother. When I come over sometimes and he passes me the ball and I don’t shoot and I drive or do anything else, I know I’m going to get an earful from Joel Embiid. So you’ve just got to appreciate that, honestly.

“That’s the MVP of the league, and for him to have trust in us as a team, him have trust in myself, I just appreciate it. I just go out there and try to be my best for him.”

It’s perhaps the prime example of how Embiid has developed as a leader. But Maxey has earned that respect through how he conducts himself daily, combining his vibrant personality with being, in Embiid’s words, the “hardest-working person I’ve been around, and that’s saying something.” Maxey has also demonstrated he can take Embiid’s ribbing — such as when he said, “You were trash today” following a 2021 game in Toronto — and direct challenges, such as Embiid proclaiming he should take 10 three-pointers per game (he took 11 Sunday) and coach Nick Nurse asking for 20 Maxey field-goal attempts each night (he made 20 out of 32 Sunday).

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen him mad,” said Embiid, content to gush about his point guard while leaning back in the chair at his locker following Maxey’s press conference. “Usually me in the mornings, I don’t mess around. But him, you can come in at 7 in the morning, [and he’s] smiling. I’m like, ‘Dude, you just woke up.’ But that’s always the same energy. Doesn’t change.

“When you’ve got people around like that, especially when they’re someone that high in the organization, it changes everything [and] sets the tone for everyone else.”

Still, this latest leap is staggering for a kid who just celebrated his 23rd birthday with cinnamon rolls (fun fact: Maxey does not like cake frosting) in the same locker room last weekend. He is averaging 28.6 points on 50.5% shooting from the floor and 43.1% on eight three-point attempts per game. He is averaging 5.4 rebounds and 7.2 assists, and has committed just 10 turnovers in nine games as the primary ballhandler. He blocked three shots against the Pacers.

And Embiid is not the only one heaping on praise. Newcomer Robert Covington has started calling him “Fourth-quarter Maxey.” Tobias Harris on Sunday was “yelling at me on the free-throw line,” Maxey said, “because I wasn’t running towards him to get the ball.”

“I’m like, ‘Yo, let’s just finish the game, man,’” Maxey said.

But nobody’s belief, nobody’s motivation, is more important than Embiid’s. He understood the significance of Maxey reaching the round-numbered statistical milestone, playfully lamenting a year ago that missed free throws prevented him from reaching a 60-point triple-double against the Jazz.

» READ MORE: Addition by Subtraction: Sixers - (Doc Rivers + James Harden) + Nick Nurse = winning basketball

That’s why he demanded Maxey let that final three-pointer fly.

“There’s a difference between 47 and 50, or 49 and 50,” Embiid said. “So I wanted him to have that feeling. But that’s not the only one he’s going to have. He’s going to have a bunch of those. …

“Obviously, he’s doing great, but I think he has an even brighter future. I think he can get to another level. Philadelphia’s got a good one. He’s going to be here for a long time and, like I said, he’s the franchise.”

Here are some more in-between moments that have peppered the Sixers’ hot start:

The Nov. 2 game against the Toronto Raptors still came with lingering questions about the Harden trade, mostly from media members who popped in for games but had not been at post-practice news conferences since the deal went down.

As Nurse answered one query during his pregame availability about what the move means for Maxey’s role and development, the lights steadily dimmed until he sat in near-darkness.

“He needs to keep that aggressiveness,” Nurse said, his voice instantly descending with the lights into a deep register that could have been used on Halloween two nights earlier.

Perhaps that was the universe physically turning out the lights on the Harden storyline in Philly. Or, it was just an accidental flub inside a new space where these news conferences are held while the Wells Fargo Center undergoes renovations.

Either way, the room erupted with laughter. And it created some levity in what had become a repetitive process for Nurse.

On the late-night flight home following Friday’s win at Detroit, Nurse presented “special assignments” to assistant coaches Doug West and Matt Brase.

Nurse declined to reveal what those specific duties will entail moving forward. But he has begun to more sharply define roles on this first-year Sixers staff.

Nurse and Coby Karl, who previously was the head coach of the G League’s Delaware Blue Coats, will shoulder more schematic and game-planning responsibility on the offensive end of the floor. Bryan Gates, meanwhile, will do the same on the defensive end.

Rico Hines helms the player-development program, which recently has included the on-the-fly acclimation of Covington, Nicolas Batum, Marcus Morris, and KJ Martin. And Bobby Jackson will focus on “special teams,” or more situational elements such as out-of-bounds plays, late-game sets and zone offense and defense.

» READ MORE: Sixers assistant Rico Hines shares secret behind his summer runs and development of young talent

Harden vacating his No. 1 Sixers jersey means it was available for Martin to take after arriving in the trade.

Yet Martin is not a player who has always worn that popular singular digit. He wore No. 6 with the Clippers and Houston Rockets, but that is retired in Philly to honor all-timer Julius Erving.

“Somebody told me, ‘You should ask him. He would probably let you wear it,’” Martin told The Inquirer last week. “And I was like, ‘Ahhh … I don’t know.’”

No. 4, which Martin wore in high school at IMG Academy and Sierra Canyon, would have been his second choice. But that is also retired because it was previously worn by Dolph Schayes. Former No. 4 wearers Paul Reed (who instead wears 44) and Matisse Thybulle (who wore 22 here) also ran into that situation upon joining the Sixers.

So, Martin settled on No. 1. And that’s not the only unintentional reminder of Harden now associated with the Sixers’ new wing. Martin also wears Harden’s basketball shoes, rocking the aquamarine version before Sunday’s win over Indiana.

Furkan Korkmaz when asked about the Sixers creating more offensive pace under Nurse: “When you see Joel running up the floor full-speed, you just want to run faster than him. You don’t want to be later than Joel. That’s why everybody was running even faster, harder.”

» READ MORE: ‘It’s totally been a village’: How ‘study hall’ sessions helped newcomers acclimate after the James Harden trade