The first-time All-Star has absolutely made the talent leap so many Sixers fans were hoping he’d make heading into year four. But with so many injuries to names like Joel Embiid, De’Anthony Melton, Nico Batum, should Nick Nurse be more mindful of the former Wildcat’s workload?

The Philadelphia 76ers are optimistic and hopeful that Joel Embiid will make his return at some point before the NBA playoffs begin. You know Nick Nurse and co. would love nothing more than to reintegrate the reigning MVP and ideally even get the center’s conditioning up as he attempts to return from a reportedly successful meniscus procedure.

But in his absence other Sixers have had to step up, chiefly one first-time All-Star, Tyrese Maxey. And step up Tyrese has.

The 6-2, 200 pounder is averaging 26 points per game, to go with 6.4 dimes, 3.7 boards, 1 steal, half a block, (all career highs). He’s connecting on 37.8 percent from distance on a career-high 8.1 three-point attempts per game.

In addition to draining so many triples (only 13 players average more made three-point field goals per game) Maxey is also applying relentless pressure on the rim, getting up a career-high 5.7 free throw attempts per game. The Texas native has already eclipsed his 2022-2023 points total, despite playing in ten fewer games to date.

But what about his minutes? Does the team need to be a little bit careful while managing Maxey’s workload moving forward? Am I nuts to worry about such a young player getting worn out or banged up before the playoffs, while tasked with such a big workload? James Harden is no longer here, and while names like Kyle Lowry and Cam Payne can certainly take on some point-guard duties, the burden (without Joel around) is through the roof on such a young player.

Still, this season:

• Maxey has played a league-leading 18 games, totaling 40 min or more.
• He’s third overall in minutes per game (37.3mpg) behind just Chicago Bulls’ Demar DeRozan (1st, 37.6mpg) and Dallas Mavericks MVP candidate Luka Dončić (2nd, 37.5 mpg).
• He ranks 13th overall in total minutes played with 1,864 through 50 games heading into this second of a back-to-back vs. Cleveland Friday.
• He has only missed five games this season.

We’re entering a grueling portion of the season where the diminutive star will be facing multiple double-teams and assuredly taking some more hard fouls that send him crashing to the floor on end; while on the other, he’ll spend time being tasked to defend the likes of Jalen Brunson, Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, Damian Lillard, Jayson Tatum, and Jaylen Brown all in under a week.

The Sixers will have faced all of those (assuming they all play) names between Feb. 22 and Feb. 27. The Knicks, Cavs, Bucks, and Celtics all in just six days.

And I don’t think Nick Nurse will be very excited to start scaling back Maxey’s minutes with such crucial ballgames on the horizon.

In the first portion of this prior season, before the break, Maxey did miss three games with an ankle ailment, and another couple of others due to illness.

The best news is that he hasn’t popped up on the injury report with that previously sore ankle since returning to the team’s lineup (after nearly a week off, minus All-Star festivities) but how cautious might the team want to be with its best player —while Embiid remains out?

Last season, Maxey suffered a foot fracture in a game vs. the Milwaukee Bucks when he landed awkwardly on Jevon Carter’s foot attempting a shot.

Maybe it was simply a freak injury, the kind that’s simply unavoidable in today’s game.

Honestly, I’m surprised more players don’t land on a defender’s foot and sprain their ankles. And Tyrese, now 23, has mostly been an iron man since coming into the league, posing little injury risk (knock some oak).

But during the seven-game stretch leading up to that fateful play back in 2022, Maxey was tasked by Doc Rivers with carrying much of the load at the time. The then 22 year-old was averaging 37.5 mpg, and had not enjoyed having both Embiid and James Harden in the lineup for eight total games before he was injured. His workload and usage spiked, and his efficiency dipped.

During that stretch where Joel and Harden were in and out of the lineup, Maxey was shooting just 40 percent from the floor and just 35.3 percent from distance heading into the matchup where he was injured vs. Giannis and the Bucks.

So when he’s exhausted, and trying to carry a team that has also played a significant number of games missing one or more of De’Anthony Melton, Nico Batum, Robert Covington, and Embiid, is he at greater risk

for some type of ailment?

Maybe, maybe not. I’m no doctor. But I, like many other long-suffering Sixer fans, have had a fairly decent radar for detecting “danger zone” stretches for the team’s key players over the years.

Nurse does not seem like the type of coach to dial back the minutes if a player is medically cleared to go. We learned as much the night Embiid sustained his injury vs. the Warriors. And we’ve seen him ride names like Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam and other former Raptors in the past.

So maybe the Sixers should keep an eye on Maxey’s workload during the next stretch of games. He can’t do it all without Embiid. But he may just try to. He’s that much of a competitor, and he’s the team’s best shot at snagging shorthanded wins vs. elite teams.

Hopefully, they can get Rese and Jo to the playoffs healthy. The team has done a good job with Tyrese to date.

But that doesn’t mean I won’t worry a bit when I see a stretch of games vs. four of the top Eastern Contenders in a six-day window and Joel is sidelined wearing his patented casual-chic sweat-gear drip.