The Philadelphia 76ers have really struggled as of late, which makes their latest win over the Nets all the more important for the sake of their sanity. While the game somehow involved the team getting afflicted anew by the injury bug, there are still some good takeaways from this outing, most especially when it comes to Jared McCain.
Playing in just his ninth game back from a couple of injuries that sidelined him for almost an entire calendar year, McCain turned in what was definitely his best performance yet this season, finishing the night with 20 points, four rebounds, and five steals while converting on seven of his 16 field goal attempts and four of his three-point tries off the bench to turbocharge the 76ers toward an NBA Cup win. While they were already eliminated beforehand, it was still a win into their record.
Getting much more court time thanks to the gaping hole in the backcourt left by VJ Edgecombe, who has missed the last three games with a minor calf injury, McCain has played inspired basketball since. Slowly but surely, he is returning to his pre-injury form, and this development, without him realizing it, is a huge statement in and of itself toward the 76ers.
Jared McCain sends a strong message to the 76ers without him realizing it
As long as McCain keeps this up — with his production within the framework of having actual reps on the hardwood showing that the likelihood of that happening is strong — there should be no more reason for Nick Nurse and the coaching staff to keep milking the hell out of Tyrese Maxey and most importnatly, VJ Edgecombe when he returns.
Edgecombe has been averaging 37.3 minutes per outing, which is second in the entire league and trails only Maxey. However, his dip in efficiency has been manifest in recent weeks, and it is probable that it is a result of him slowly getting burned out due to the baptism by fire he was gifted with.
Obviously, that is far from an exercise of prudence, and his recent calf setback is already a sign they cannot ignore. And with McCain looking more than ready to assume his role as a stabilizer off the bench, it would be malpractice to keep feeding Edgecombe such a sky-high dosage of minutes to his detriment.
McCain is clearly someone who fares much better when he is left on the floor. While the 76ers do not have to play him starter minutes, he should be constantly playing above 20 minutes on the nightly — and that is with him still finding his wind back.
Hopefully, this expected resurgence by Jared McCain will be taken in as a beneficial tidbit by the coaching staff to the effect that they finally do away with overexerting their starting backcourt before it’s too late.