Tyrese Maxey is playing his way into consideration for a postseason role | David Murphy

Watching Tyrese Maxey navigate a basketball court is like watching a laser pointer navigate a wall.

He is here, and he is there, and it isn’t always clear where he has been in between.

His is a frenetic style of play, a neck-snapping, hair-flapping fusion of quick-twitch fiber and youthful gumption that can sometimes appear to create as much energy as it consumes. With the 76ers down a couple of starters and coming off a hard-fought victory the previous night, Doc Rivers arrived at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday night and decided to play a hunch.

“My thought was, well, the young fella will have energy,” the head coach said later when explaining his decision to start his rookie point guard against the Pistons, “and we needed energy in this game.”

The question now is whether that energy is something that the Sixers can use to their benefit this postseason. Against the Pistons, it played a major role in propelling a tired team to a 118-104 victory and pulling it to within two games of clinching the top seed in the Eastern Conference. Maxey played 35 minutes, scoring 22 points on 7-of-11 shooting and posting a plus-25 in the box score. It was the fifth game in the Sixers’ last 11 that Maxey logged at least 19 minutes, a run that began when Rivers inserted him for a struggling Shake Milton in a last-second loss to the Suns on April 21.

Maxey’s re-emergence after a quiet middle third of the schedule should only thicken the intrigue as Rivers prepares his team for the playoffs. A few months ago, it appeared as if the rookie’s most lasting contribution to the 2020-21 season would be as trade bait. After an intriguing start that saw him average 21.5 minutes and 10.6 points in the Sixers’ first 15 games, Maxey gradually saw himself fade from the rotation in favor of players like Milton, Matisse Thybulle, and Furkan Korkmaz. Sixers president Daryl Morey did not go to great lengths to disguise his hunt for a veteran ballhandler. The mission included the failed pursuits of stars James Harden and Kyle Lowry, both of which surfaced Maxey’s name as a potential piece in the outgoing package. Now, the rookie is back on the court, and he’s looking like a factor.

The Sixers have no shortage of options for the back end of their postseason rotation. The five starters are in, as are back-up center Dwight Howard and veteran guard George Hill, whom Morey ultimately settled for at the trade deadline. There will be some obvious spots for Rivers to call on Thybulle for his defensive prowess. But, similarly, there could be some opportunities where the situation calls for Maxey.

Like Thybulle, Maxey brings a dimension to the court that doesn’t really exist elsewhere on the roster. As Howard put it after the win over the Pistons, “He gets out on the court and creates havoc.”

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The element is most noticeable on the offensive end, where Maxey plays at the pace of a Tazmanian Devil. According to the NBA’s game-tracking data, Maxey is averaging .718 points per drive, which ranks him sixth among the 87 guards who have been credited with at least 300 drives on the season. The small handful of players who have scored more frequently include All-Stars Kyrie Irving, Bradley Beal, C.J. McCollum, and De’Aaron Fox, the latter of whom preceded him in the backcourt of John Calipari’s Kentucky Wildcats juggernaut.

The whole experience can have the feel of a video game where Maxey is a user-controlled player in an environment of algorithmic synchrony. There are times when the joystick commands do not match the surroundings. Within that aforementioned group of 87 guards with at least 300 drives, Maxey’s assist ratio ranks 83rd and his pass frequency 80th. His preferred finishing move is a floater, a shot that limits a player’s ability to draw fouls and make last-second passes and is generally one of the lower percentage options at the point of attack. If the Sixers were Emilio Estevez’s second Mighty Ducks roster, Maxey would be Luis Mendoza, the lightning quick skater who needs to figure out how to stop.

“Coach told me that he thought I had the ability to get downhill and not settle as much,” Maxey said. “I’ve been trying to work on that a lot.”

He is raw, yes, but it is a sushi grade raw. Maxey’s combination of talent, athleticism, and moxie is especially intriguing when you consider the playoff matchups that could await the Sixers. Their road to the NBA Finals could require them to contend with a number of the small, quick guards who have historically given them trouble. In addition to Irving and Harden in Brooklyn, the Hawks and Knicks can both run out small lineups and attempt to beat the Sixers off the dribble. With that in mind, consider the praise Rivers had for Maxey’s defensive performance against the Pistons.

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“We challenged him to get up every single time and turn them,” the coach said. “And I thought he did that. Now, he was exhausted at the end of the game because of that, but I told him, defense is hard. It exhausts you. You can do both, and I thought he did that.”

At the very least, Maxey’s stretch-run performance should make the Sixers confident penciling him for a role in next year’s rotation. But don’t be surprised if you see him this postseason.