By Jerry Wein
Tyrese Maxey is not a natural point guard.
And he knows it.
However, on Thursday he had 16 points, six rebounds, and six assists with two blocks in a 110-102 win over the Detroit Pistons.
He shot 6-for-8 from the floor and he knocked down both of his triples.
But he also had four turnovers.
“It’s just a work in progress,” Maxey said.
“It’s the fifth game, stuff is slowing down. I’m figuring out where guys want the ball, trying to find switches or advantages that work for us. So it’s getting a lot better. Like I said the coaching staff and my teammates they’ve been great. They’ve been helping me, they’ve been patient and critiquing me and been hard on me to help me and I really appreciate them.”
“I don’t mind it because I feel like I am a student of the game and like I said I go home watching the film and I study,” Maxey added.
“One thing that I am big on is debriefing and once the game is over I think Coach Cal [John Calipari, his coach at Kentucky] taught me one thing you get 24 hours to grieve. In the NBA, I give myself 12 more hours to grieve cause you never know if you have a back-to-back or not, but get 12 hours to grieve about the game and then you let it go.”
“Sometimes you need to get away from the game,” he finished. “I love it. I love it to the highest level, but sometimes just going home and calling my mom, calling my family, checking up on my sister playing volleyball or my older sister who’s a cheerleading coach and playing with my dog and living life.”
