This has become an uncomfortable All-Star break for the Sixers.

They were playing terrific basketball heading into the trade deadline, and with Joel Embiid playing his best basketball in years, it felt as if the team could catch lightning in a bottle. But at the deadline, they exiled a fan favorite and failed to replace him. Sixers President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey attempted to argue that nobody should lose the optimism they had before because the team remains almost exactly as it was beforehand. All anyone can focus on, though, is a string of controversial comments Morey made about Jared McCain and the fact that the Sixers ducked the luxury tax threshold yet again. The Sixers had a few truly horrid losses, and Embiid had his first set of unplanned absences in over a month due to a right knee issue flaring up again.

A nice reprieve for Sixers fans: VJ Edgecombe and Tyrese Maxey represented the team across all three nights of All-Star weekend, with the 20-year-old rookie Edgecombe setting the tone by dominating a batch of rookies and sophomores before Maxey was able to reap the benefits of his official arrival as a household name in the NBA, participating in each of the following two nights of events.

As we kick off the week with 5 Sixers thoughts, a summary of the team's involvement in All-Star festivities, before addressing three things that need to be fixed when the team returns from its break, and acknowledging an important move in a buyout market that the Sixers are involved in:

All-Star weekend recap

There was no moment of All-Star weekend that was better for the Sixers than Edgecombe's dazzling Rising Stars MVP performance on Friday night – perhaps in part because Maxey was there to support him in the front row. A wholesome moment from the two backcourt mates in reaction to Edgecombe's game-winning free throw made waves over the weekend:

After Maxey struggled in the 3-Point Contest on Saturday, the Sixers' sixth-year star bounced back a bit in Sunday's revamped All-Star Game. Maxey was part of the winning team, and even if Anthony Edwards and Kawhi Leonard were the true standout performers of the night, Maxey was able to string together a strong sequence of plays early in the championship game to pave the way for a blowout.

Maxey's workload has been gargantuan – we will get to that in a moment – and Edgecombe's has possibly been larger than that of any NBA rookie. Both players were on the road for a long and emotional five-game Western Conference road trip, then flew back to Philadelphia for one miserable home game before going back to Los Angeles for All-Star duties. Now they will return to Philadelphia again, and both have earned the right to get as much rest as they possibly can.

MORE: What can Sixers get for first-rounder acquired for Jared McCain?

Tyrese Maxey's workload

Let's start here: it is completely reasonable to argue that Maxey has handled a heavier workload this season than any other player in the entire NBA. Maxey, who missed two games with an illness in December and has played in the Sixers' other 52 contests this season, is asked to handle an enormous amount of responsibility on offense, all while serving a defensive role that requires explosive bursts:

Sixers head coach Nick Nurse is a longtime believer in using the best players for as many minutes as possible. Maxey averaged 40 minutes per game over the first several weeks of the season, and as he came out of the gate playing like a superstar, the Sixers derived plenty of value from having their best player on the floor more often than other teams do. It is hard not to ponder whether or not the Sixers are paying for that now, as Maxey's scoring volume and efficiency have declined quite a bit over the last month:

While some of the volume decline can be attributed to Embiid's uptick in availability and performance, there is a massive sample size that has formed over Maxey's career, and it indicates that the more he plays with Embiid, the more efficient Maxey is.

Maxey's work ethic has become the stuff of legend in Philadelphia (and Camden, where the Sixers' practice facility is). His endurance and stamina are quite possibly unparalleled across the league. But there is only so much one body can take in today's day and age, when everything on the floor is happening at a faster speed and against bigger, stronger opponents.

While Maxey is not one for excuses, he has let the word "tired" slip in a few postgame availabilities this season. And it is hard to blame him for suffering the consequences of logging so many taxing minutes. The Sixers need Maxey to be at his best to secure a playoff spot and then do something memorable with that positioning, and finding ways to continue reducing his workload could go a long way. Perhaps that influenced the Sixers' reported decision to bring back spark plug guard Cam Payne, who can back up Maxey and play alongside either of Edgecome or Quentin Grimes. Speaking of Grimes...

Quentin Grimes playing out of control

Trading away McCain without acquiring any new pieces – particularly in the backcourt – has caused major consternation in this sense: the Sixers have a very strong trio of guards, but what happens if one of Maxey, Edgecombe or Quentin Grimes is unavailable? The answer is jarring, as was shown when Grimes missed the team's last two games before the break due to an illness, which also likely played a major role in the Payne deal.

But even while discounting the team's complete lack of insurance behind Maxey and Edgecombe after the deadline, it is worth addressing just how important of a piece Grimes is now. Early in the season, the 25-year-old looked like a prime candidate to win the Sixth Man of the Year Award, easily toggling from on-ball duties to off-ball specialization in an instant and giving the Sixers satisfactory minutes in any role just about every night for the first few weeks of his first full season with the team.

Grimes, who early in the season would have a scoring barrage once every few games and made plenty of clutch shots late in games, has largely been muted as a scorer for multiple months. As Embiid has continued to ascend, that alone is not a death sentence, though Paul George's suspension greatly intensified the Sixers' need for consistent secondary scoring.

What has been at least as troubling as Grimes' lack of explosive nights is the general lack of control he is playing with. Grimes is a very good athlete, but too often is he moving faster than he can think. Grimes' turnover issues have been constant all season long; his drives are real adventures and oftentimes not in a good way. Even on defense, Grimes has served a vital role defending above his size in three-guard lineups but has been reckless on closeouts. Only three players in the NBA have fouled a three-point shooter more times than Grimes this season:

The largest issue with Grimes' season, which very quickly turned from exciting to disappointing: he is only shooting 34.1 percent from three-point range in his fifth NBA season after entering the year a career 37.5 percent shooter from beyond the arc. Grimes shot 40.2 percent on threes in his first 15 games this season, and in 33 games since he is making only 30.4 percent of his long-distance attempts.

MORE: Bonus Sixers mailbag (more buyout options, issues with guard depth)

Volatile backup center minutes

One of the most pleasant surprises of the early portion of this season was the quality of play the Sixers got at the five behind Embiid. Adem Bona's progress has started and stopped throughout the season; his last few games before the break were letdowns after a strong surge for a few weeks leading up to the trade deadline. The bigger surprise was Andre Drummond, who looked unplayable for much of his first full season with the Sixers and then – partly thanks to a newfound corner three-point shooting ability – became a solid innings-eater of sorts this season.

Drummond, whose early-season role was playing for a few minutes at a time to spell Bona while Embiid was on a harsh minutes restriction, was riding a high of sorts going into a Nov. 28 road game against the Brooklyn Nets. He had asserted himself as not just Embiid's primary backup ahead of Bona, but as more than capable of handling significant minutes on Embiid's off nights. That night in Brooklyn, Drummond suffered what looked like it could be a serious knee injury. MRIs came back clean and Drummond, unbelievably at the time, did not even miss the following game. But the quality of his minutes has gone into the tank ever since.

Is Drummond still playing hurt, nearly three months later? He has not been listed on any injury reports since a few days after the bad landing in Brooklyn, but Drummond is passionate about always being available for his team. Mobility has been among his primary weaknesses for years, but his difficulties keeping up with the speed of games has seemed more obvious for a prolonged stretch now, whether the cause is his injury scare or not.

Now, there is no question that Bona is ahead of Drummond in the pecking order, but that has not been spurred by the younger's growth as much as it has been caused by the veteran's pronounced struggles. Particularly after Embiid's right knee issue flared up and caused him to miss the final two games before the break, though, it is going to be important for the Sixers to get serviceable play from both Bona and Drummond.

Even if the Sixers' projection of little to no concern about Embiid's knee proves to be both genuine and prudent, the team opens the stretch run of its schedule out of the break with three games in four nights. There are five back-to-backs remaining on the schedule, including four in less than a month. As has been written here many times: the Sixers' third-string center is just as important as any other team's primary backup at the five.

Sixers lose a potential buyout option

Over the break, the Phoenix Suns reportedly agreed to a multiyear deal with former Sixers developmental project Haywood Highsmith, quite possibly the best player in this year's buyout market. After failing to catch on with the Sixers and then going overseas, Highsmith caught on with the Miami Heat and spent years there as a sturdy and reliable two-way wing who played important minutes on a team that went to the NBA Finals.

Highsmith was salary dumped by the Miami Heat last summer in an effort to preemptively get under the luxury tax threshold, then a knee injury prevented him from suiting up for a Brooklyn Nets team that was likely more interested in giving minutes to its young players regardless. Now, Highsmith joins a feisty Suns team that could use another piece on the wing.

MORE: How Dominick Barlow earned an unusual standard deal, McCain talks trade, more