The Philadelphia 76ers are facing another tall task as they aim for another series upset in their Eastern Conference Semifinals affair against the New York Knicks, but adding to the difficulty is the fact that they have barely gotten any semblance of actual production from their players coming off the bench.
That makes it all the more regretful that the front office made the decision to trade Jared McCain to the Thunder right before the deadline in February. Now, the sophomore guard continues to be an impressive piece for Oklahoma City off the bench, adding to their embarrassment of riches in the backcourt.
During OKC's Game 1 matchup against the Lakers, the former 76ers guard turned in 12 points in just 15 minutes of gameplay, draining four of his five three-point tries to help the Thunder pull away from the visitors. That is the kind of scoring ability which Daryl Morey and his cohorts allowed to slip away, and it will continue to haunt this team as their bench continues to struggle.
The 76ers continue to regret Jared McCain trade as their bench falls flat
Philly had one of the lowest scoring second units in the league all season even before McCain got shipped away to the Northwest Division, so dealing him at the deadline was certainly a choice for the front office. To be fair, the returns of that divisive trade have yet to be realized in favor of the 76ers, but so far, it has been a pretty lopsided win for the Thunder despite his modulated playing time as of late.
McCain, whom Nick Nurse did not supply with consistent court time in his sophomore campaign, admittedly struggled for the most part with the 76ers. However, that is largely imputable to injury-related rust. After all, young guards typically have steeper learning curves in the NBA, and by missing almost an entire calendar year due to injury, McCain has it way tougher.
Instead, the 76ers probably saw VJ Edgecombe's emergence as the trigger point for them to make the hard choice and jettison McCain. There remains some credence as to that position, but for now, it is certainly not helping the team in the slightest. Put simply, McCain's scoring ability and shooting have been sorely missed.
The Philadelphia 76ers still have a lot of time to figure out how to neutralize their lack of production off the bench, but if there is one thing they cannot dispute, it is that the Knicks are going to exploit them on that end as much as possible.
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