Tyrese Maxey is set to sign a max contract.
The Sixers have agreed in principle to a new five-year, approximately $204 million deal with the All-Star guard that's expected to be finalized in the days ahead, a source confirmed to NBC Sports Philadelphia. It’ll be a richly earned pay raise for a player who made approximately $4.3 million last year in the final season of his rookie contract.
ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski first reported the news and noted the contract is fully guaranteed with no options.
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Maxey was named the NBA’s Most Improved Player for the 2023-24 season after averaging 25.9 points, 6.2 assists and 3.7 rebounds. He’s still only 23 years old and the Sixers believe he’s capable of continued growth.
“We should all learn not to bet against Tyrese, given that he’s beat expectations every single season,” Sixers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey said at his end-of-season press conference.
Sixers head coach Nick Nurse thinks Maxey can keep improving in several areas, including defensively.
“I think a lot of it is just convincing them how good they can be at it. He’s got amazing physical skills, right? He’s so fast and so quick that he should be able to bother people,” Nurse told NBC Sports Philadelphia in April. “He’s a lot stronger than people think he is, too. So he can fight through screens, get over screens, block people out and all those things.
NBA
“I just think he’s got all the tools to do it, and we’ve got to just keep chipping away at it. Let’s make that a part of who he is — a two-way player.”
Assistant coach Rico Hines told NBC Sports Philadelphia that he thinks Maxey “has a chance to be a Hall of Famer.”
“He’s unique, man,” Hines said. “He’s a budding star. He has an infectious personality. He never has a bad day and he lights up a room when he’s in there with his infectious energy, contagious energy, good energy. … I just think he’s growing and growing and growing.”
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