If Tyrese Maxey’s season is over, it will be remembered for career numbers, increased leadership, and an unfair load on his shoulders

Doc Rivers was more than 10 minutes late to Thursday’s pregame news conference because he stopped to have a conversation with Tyrese Maxey in the Wells Fargo Center’s hallway.

Later that night, Maxey settled into a spot behind the 76ers’ bench to watch his teammates play against Rivers’ Milwaukee Bucks. That has been Maxey’s routine for the past month while sidelined with pinkie finger and back injuries — and will continue to be for the Sixers’ five remaining games, according to an ESPN report that the star point guard is expected to be shut down for the rest of the season.

Sixers coach Nick Nurse pushed back before Thursday’s loss to the Bucks, saying such determinations had not occurred and that Maxey had only been ruled out for the upcoming game. But if Maxey has taken the floor for the final time in 2024-25, it becomes the latest disappointing injury during a woeful Sixers season full of them. It also ends Maxey fifth NBA season, during which he put up a career-high 26.3 points per game and flashed improvement as a defender but shouldered an unfair offensive load and fought the mental challenges of mounting losses for the first time in his basketball life.

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After becoming a first-time All-Star and creating an effective tandem with former MVP center Joel Embiid in 2023-24, Maxey was supposed to spend this season as part of a championship-caliber Big Three alongside Embiid and marquee free-agent signing Paul George. Instead, Embiid and George were hampered by injuries for significant stretches, forcing the 24-year-old Maxey into the role of top offensive option while playing the most minutes in the league (37.7 per game) entering Friday.

Though still an electric threat while attacking the basket or launching from long range, Maxey’s shooting percentages dropped to 43.7% from the floor, including 33.7% from beyond the arc, while he attempted to counter the variety of defenses thrown at him. He averaged 1.8 steals while becoming a more disruptive defender, an area of his game he clearly cares about sharpening.

He also needed to be the Sixers’ primary vocal leader and public spokesperson, tasked with explaining loss after loss to the media. He acknowledged that, early in the season, the smile and demeanor that made him so endearing during his initial NBA ascent had faded. After discussions with his family and inner circle, he vowed to replace any frustration with positivity, even as defeats continued to accumulate.

That uptick in maturity has been noticeable to Rivers, who coached Maxey’s first three NBA seasons. Rivers, a former point guard, can also relate to the responsibility a standout player at that position feels when the team descends into a dreadful season.

“He’s just really grown up,” Rivers said of Maxey. “He knows what he wants to accomplish. He’s not scared to use his voice, where there was no way he was going to use his voice when I was there. … He’s just one of those guys that brings sunshine to your locker room.

“Every team should have 12 [of those players], but every team should really just have one, if they can get ‘em. When you have one, you better fight to keep it, because on the dark days, those [types] of people in your locker room, they kind of save your franchise in some ways.”

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But the injury bug also eventually bit Maxey.

The finger sprain clearly affected his shooting even before this 16-game absence, as he connected on only 32.4% of his field-goal attempts and went 9-of-43 from three-point range in his last seven games. As recently as Tuesday, Maxey was spotted inside Madison Square Garden’s visitors’ locker room altering a handshake-like motion with a Sixers staffer to protect his pinkie. The last time Maxey played in that venue, on Feb. 26, he went 0-for-10 from three-point range — a jarring contrast to his 46-point outburst in Game 5 of a wildly entertaining first-round playoff series against the Knicks less than a year ago, which further stamped him as one of the league’s rising young talents.

After signing a max contract extension last summer, Maxey still is regarded as one of the Sixers’ franchise cornerstones.

His future could be even more critical, given the uncertainty swirling around the 31-year-old Embiid, who will undergo arthroscopic knee surgery next week, and 34-year-old George, whose production dipped to a shocking degree in his first season in Philly before being shut down in mid-March because of a groin issue. Yet potential exists for Maxey to create a dynamic backcourt with Jared McCain, who was an early Rookie of the Year front-runner before undergoing knee surgery in December and, like Maxey, boasts an extremely likable personality.

If Maxey does not take the floor again this season, short-term ballhandling auditions would continue for Quentin Grimes, who totaled 10 assists against the Bucks, Jared Butler, and Jeff Dowtin Jr. Veteran Kyle Lowry made a somewhat surprising return on Tuesday in New York from a nearly two-month absence with a hip injury but did not play against Milwaukee. Maxey has continued to travel with the Sixers, allowing him to still affect the group from the locker room and bench.

“That definitely means a lot, just him being around the team even when he’s not playing,” Dowtin said. “Just his presence has been big for us. Just showing positivity. Just showing that leadership role. Just helping guys on the court. Just being around us [and] teaching us certain things here and there that he’s seeing or he’s noticing.

“But just that environment that he creates with just his energy and his mindset has been positive for us.”

That could remain Maxey’s role for the Sixers’ final five games. It would cap a challenging fifth NBA season, when the point guard shouldered far more than expected.