The NBA wasn't ready for this...

The NBA was not ready for this. With all of the changes, tweaks, additions, subtractions, and overhaul to the Sixers roster this offseason, there was certainly no shortage of think pieces and quotes and different ideas coming out about how it's now this person's team, now it's nobody's team, and everybody has to share, and usage rates are going to change, so everyone's going to struggle, and no one's going to get to be a clear-cut favorite, and it's going to require sacrifice. And with all those ideas that were thrown around, one thing that I did not see hypothesized, That's actually a word or not. But one thing I did not see thrown out there that I am now seeing very much in the actual statistical production is that Tyrese Maxey should be the MVP this year, or at the very least deserves at this point to be in the conversation. What's going on, everybody? Christian Pedersen back with another episode of Sixers Digest, the show where we bring you daily content on all things Sixers. And yeah, we're fans, so of course we're going to advocate for our guy to be the MVP of the NBA. And at the same time, though, I don't think that that's... It's actually that outrageous of a thought. And while there have definitely been the vintage LeBron outings and the Joel Embiid plays and Jalen Brown performing and VJ's having a great season and Anthony Simons has been an absolute bucket. In all of that, the consistent thing is that Tyrese Maxey has both been statistically outrageously good and productive and the most consistent heavy hitter of the load, but he's also kind of been the dagger guy. And as much as it's been like. Oh, for that one run, we certainly required Jalen Brown to have a play, or LeBron, or like I said, everybody has stepped up, and it has been a team effort, but the team seems to be anchored by Bizarro Mamba, or it's, oh, you're going to push back, he's not quite Kobe yet, sure, he's not quite Kobe yet, but he has that seemingly killer mentality ice in his vein, and as our graphics department cooked up, the MVP case for him starts with two-way production, so we're going to cover both ends of What makes Tyrese Maxey a potential MVP? The numbers for him, I think... Look at that stat line right there. We'll It's pretty impressive. His numbers are outrageous as so far throughout the season. see And I get that some of you are going to push back and be like, oh, we're only seven or eight games into the year. you And I don't know whose impression I'm doing there. But some of you will calm down, dude. next At the same time, though... I don't see this trend necessarily slowing down. We have not played just nothing but cupcakes. time. We have had road games. We have had road games against the Knicks. We've had to have come-from-behind victories left and right. So we have recovered that dog-in-them-type mentality that this team has had to have. We've also had a team that's had to produce statistically. And the scoring every single game all season long has been there for Maxi. See, it's not like he... had last night's game against the Hornets and then also a two-point outing and a four-point outing and it's just aggregating that he's having a big season. His season high last night certainly propelled him to higher heights and I don't know how many other times I can say hi this episode but hi everybody. Nick Nurse also has noticed the leap and entered the conversation. The quote from Nurse he's been most impressed with his jump in maturity this season and some of that He has also related into him getting awards. He's been named Eastern Conference Player of the Week so far this season. We'll Joel Embiid has weighed in. Saying that he's taken a leap every single year. So like people are recognizing it's not like it's a dark horse. be I'm taking some sleeper on like I, you know, right it's outrageous to say like if I was out here saying I get a dumb boner MVP, I would hear myself there. But Maxie, tell me the case against him at the very least at this point in the season back. being in the consideration for. I don't know how much dead air I'm ever allowed to give on here. It's been something of like a trade-off this season, like I said, of a little bit of this guy, a little bit of that guy, a little bit of this guy. But it does feel to me like Maxi is the anchor. So that's where I combine the numbers with the clutch end-of-game performances and dagger after dagger after dagger. It just feels to me like every game is building up his resume for that. He has had... impact left and right and he has been able to help everybody out in his scoring and his assists have also been there it's so it's not just like he's putting up 30 points a night and not helping out the rest of the team or that his scoring alone is helping everybody he has been he has been generating his own offense and he has been helping everybody else generate offense and that's That's kind of where, to me, the... The numbers. Pan out to answer the question that was initially posed about how this was all going to look. What's the sacrifice? Who's going to be sharing? It kind of seems like everybody has realized, oh man, if we all take just a little step back, this guy is absolutely ready to shine. And I also, I hear myself, this is my first season covering the Sixers, so I haven't had a body of evidence to say, I've been acknowledging his greatness the last couple years, but it feels like this has kicked into another notch this year, if you will. He has talked about it also. Any type he's this quote from him saying he's comfortable playing in any type of situation at this point in my career. I've played in so many different circumstances. So like he has also been ready to answer the call, which to me is fantastically huge. So again, I keep asking like What is the breakdown that would be the argument against him being the MVP? His numbers this season, those are probably a little small, so let's cut over to these. Thank you, as always, to the Digest Sports graphics people making these fantastic quantum leap forward. Go check out DigestSports.com for more in-depth numbers on all of this. I still got to figure out which buttons to adequately press for all of these. But statistically speaking, dude, it's been... What more do you want from the guy? I like this chart the best of, if this was a 2K slider, you'd be like, oh, that's a really, really good, that's an elite player. So however you want to distill it down, I just don't see a shortcoming in his game right now. And sure, there have been other players out there having great years, but I'm not paid to cover them. So I'm not a fan of those guys. I'm not a fan of those teams. I'm a Sixers fan and I host a Sixers YouTube. So of course I'm going to be biased, To me, what's the, again, I keep asking you, what's the argument against it? What's the argument against it? Tell me how it hurts. Because he's also drawing some, he's drawing some praise from actual, you know, legacy media, if you will, people that are not just in a Sixers echo chamber. And so I want to be in on championing. This cause of him being somebody who, like we saw last night with both Embiid and LeBron sitting, he carried them to a win. I don't know what more you want from it when he can make the daggers, play defense, get the assists, and be the guy who can be out there taking the team on what could be an off night where we were all ready to write off, you know, okay, totally accept that loss. We need to have the conversation about it big. He shifted the narrative entirely and was like, no, that's a win. We're not going to be the kind of team that lets those games slip through the crack because I'm going to go out there and I'm going to drop game here 40 points. and elevate all of us with my play and get the steals and play defense and have the fast break speed that nobody can, the dude's running down the court at Mach 5. It's amazing to see. I think that, like I said, he's an early case for the MVP candidate. Best player in basketball, best team in basketball, best fan base in basketball. As always, if you guys want to hit that like, subscribe, comment, share, follow, all those other buttons. Want to hear from you in the comment section on this one. Until next time, talk to you guys soon.