As everyone knows, the Philadelphia 76ers have not gotten the kind of production they were hoping to receive from Jared McCain. While his rust was expected given that he nearly missed an entire calendar year due to a couple of injuries, he has admittedly been pretty terrible for the most part. In fact, he has found himself in Nick Nurse's doghouse for quite some time now.
Things, however, seem to have shifted for him in the last couple of games. Handed with significant playing time during the team's last two outings, the sophomore guard has found his groove, scoring 16.5 points during that span on 57 percent shooting from the field, which includes a 60 percent success rate from downtown. At this juncture, the 76ers should just give him consistent minutes and resort to the inevitable trade they are in denial about –– a trade involving Quentin Grimes.
Grimes, who kicked the season off as one of the indisputable favorites to bag the Sixth Man of the Year award, has immensely struggled since December. His numbers are down across the board, and there is little to suggest that he can still turn things around given how sour his production has been since his usage went down.
The 76ers should finally trade Quentin Grimes and focus on Jared McCain
Truth be told, Grimes and McCain are redundant off the bench. Both are score-first guards who are probably better playing off the ball. But it would do the 76ers more justice if they lean into the latter, who is the younger commodity and likely still touts the higher ceiling.
Grimes has struggled so much that it is becoming increasingly difficult to justify the fact that he is still averaging nearly 30 minutes a night. Meanwhile, the 76ers have not really given McCain the reps he needs to fully regain his mojo. Put simply, the coaching staff has set the sophomore up for one hell of a slump.
Having said that, McCain has consistently shown that he can produce when given real, non-garbage court time. With the team heavily relying on Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe anyway, trading Grimes will not exactly paralyze them. In fact, he should still be good enough to fetch the 76ers some real assets they can use for the future.
If the 76ers want to optimize their expiring contracts, trading Quentin Grimes should be a no-brainer for them. Jared McCain is more than capable of filling in for the former anyway, albeit without the attendant headaches with his contract.