Why Nick Nurse wants to see more aggression from Tyrese Maxey despite a hot start

Tyrese Maxey is balling.

Off to his best start as a 76er, the point guard is making people forget about James Harden.

But on Saturday, Maxey had a quiet first half before finishing with 22 points and 10 assists in the 112-100 victory over Phoenix Suns at the Wells Fargo Center.

“That’s not enough,” coach Nick Nurse said. “He’s too good to have a quiet first half. He’s got to not get into those modes where he’s not being more aggressive.

“I’m not criticizing him. I’m just trying to keep imploring that needs to be more aggressive.”

» READ MORE: Kelly Oubre Jr., Tobias Harris step up as Sixers pull away from Suns to extend winning streak to four games

Maxey is too good beating defenders off the dribble. He’s also too good of a shooter to not take more chances.

“So we’re going to keep working on that a little bit,” Nurse said. “I’m glad that he bounced back.”

Maxey had 11 points on 5-for-14 shooting through three quarters. He was more aggressive in the fourth quarter with 11 points on 4-for-4 shooting — including two threes.

His late aggressiveness was the result of the Sixers (4-1) calling plays for him. Nurse said they ran the same play about seven straight times.

“And we flipped it around and ran the same thing in the other direction, and he came off and hit a three one time and drove in and laid it in one time,” the coach said. “Again, sometimes when the ball isn’t finding you and you’re not aggressive as we like you to be, we try to manufacture some things to try to get him aggressive. That’s what was going on in the fourth.”

It’s no secret that a lot of the Sixers’ success will depend on how Maxey plays, especially in the postseason.

The Sixers could be a tough out if he plays aggressively. That will free things up for Joel Embiid and create easy scoring opportunities for Tobias Harris and Kelly Oubre Jr.

A coach wanting Maxey to become more aggressive is nothing new.

At the start of last season, former coach Doc Rivers wanted the same thing.

Back then, he was told he couldn’t always defer to Harden and Embiid. While they’re both future Hall of Famers, the Sixers needed Maxey to become selfish on occasion and slot Embiid and Harden to second and third options.

» READ MORE: Joel Embiid counters James Harden’s claim that the Sixers held him back: ‘We gave him the ball every single possession’

Looking for his own shot is even more important this season now that Harden has been traded to the Los Angeles Clippers.

Maxey said his hesitation to shoot more has been the result of trying to make the right play and find a balance.

“My thing right now is I’m trying to pick my spot when to be ultra-aggressive and when to be able to get to the paint and get Joel shots, get Kelly shots, get Tobias shots, you know what I’m saying?” said the reigning Eastern Conference player of the week. “Get them in the right spots, too. So I think I’m doing a solid job right now.

“I knew in the fourth quarter when they made a little run that it was time for me to be aggressive and score the ball and find ways to get downhill and get to my shot and that’s kind of how it went.”

Maxey scored nine points in the Sixers’ decisive 20-6 run to break the game open. Then he scored on a finger roll to extend his team’s lead to 18 points with 4 minutes, 29 seconds remaining.

But it’s easy to see why Maxey has been hesitant to force things.

The Sixers are the first team in league history to have four players average 20-plus points over a team’s first five games. Embiid averages 29.4 points, followed by Maxey’s 26, Oubre’s 21, and Harris’ 20.0.

“The key for him is just to be aggressive,” Embiid said, “and then let the game come to him. I think as the game went along, he let the game come to him, and made the right plays. He passed up a couple of shots that I think he should have taken.

“But, you know, he had the game under control and did a pretty good, job”

» READ MORE: The Sixers are off to a good start. Their next few games could reveal how good they really are.

Like Nurse, Embiid is in Maxey’s face about not passing up opportunities and staying aggressive. The MVP has actually been preaching that to his teammates for over a season.

“I told him, we got a lot of plays that we want to run,” Embiid said, “but he doesn’t have to run all those plays. There’s so many times where there’s space. … If you see the space, man, who cares about the play? Attack because you are going to create the same look anyway.

“He’s going to score or the defense is going to collapse and somebody is going to be wide open.”

That’s why Maxey must be more aggressive.