After emerging as an impact piece for the Philadelphia Sixers during his rookie season, Jared McCain’s career took an extended pause due to injury; first a torn meniscus that ended his first year in the league, then a torn UCL in his thumb that caused him to miss the start of the current season.
Still, he profiles as a vital piece of the organization going forward, bolstering the young backcourt of Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe from the bench. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case since he’s returned to the court, as he’s struggled in limited minutes and hasn’t looked like the player we saw in his rookie campaign (although his latest outing against the Miami Heat was more than encouraging).
In 23 games last year, he averaged 15.3 points and 2.6 assists while shooting 38.3 percent from beyond the arc on nearly six attempts per game. He’s only played 89 minutes since his return, but in those minutes he is sporting a quite abysmal 39 percent true shooting percentage, only canning 10 of his 35 shots.
His struggles highlight a larger problem for the 76ers not just in this season but for the foreseeable future: guard depth.
The 76ers badly need Jared McCain’s sophomore slump to end
Through 16 games, Maxey sits atop the NBA leaderboard for minutes per game, comfortably, at a whopping 40.5 minutes. It’s been a near-decade since a player finished a season with over 38.0 MPG — James Harden’s 38.1 in 2015-16 — let alone 40.
It’s been a needed 40 minutes per game from Maxey though; he’s currently second in the NBA in 33 points per game with, taking a league-high 23.4 shots per outing while still maintaining an impressive 61.5 percent true shooting percentage.
Just the other day in an overtime win over the Bucks, Maxey clocked in just under 47 minutes of game action, filling the stat sheet with 54 points, nine assists, five rebounds, three steals and three blocks while finishing a +18 in a nine-point victory.
It’s safe to say that the 76ers need every bit of those 40 minutes per game that Maxey is putting in, and at least for now, he seems up to the task. And what superstar player (yes, he’s a superstar) doesn’t lead their team in minutes? So what’s the problem here?
Well, if you take a short trip from the first slot in the minutes per game leaderboard, where Maxey sits, to…the second slot, you’ll find Sixers rookie guard VJ Edgecombe, at 37.3 minutes.
It’s troubling to say the least, but also understandable seeing as how Philadelphia's backup guard options before McCain returned from injury were: Quentin Grimes — great, 39-year-old Kyle Lowry — not great, 36-year-old Eric Gordon — really not great, and a two-way rookie named Hunter Sallis who may or may not exist.
For the current season, it’s easy to ask Maxey and Edgecombe to leave it all on the court. It may even be a challenge they look forward to, especially with Maxey playing at an MVP level and Edgecombe vying for some rookie-related hardware. But what happens when the offseason rolls around and the Sixers are inevitably priced out of the retaining-Quentin-Grimes sweepstakes, leaving Jared McCain and a pile of dust where Kyle Lowry once stood as Philadelphia’s only backup guards.
What happens is trouble: careers turned into what-if’s by Tom Thibodeau rotations, stars (one in particular that’s represented by Klutch Sports) asking out to teams with more help, and the franchise descending into basketball hell where they’ll be neighbors with the Brooklyn Nets.
Is that going to happen? Probably not, but surely everyone would feel a lot better about it if Jared McCain returned to his rookie-year, budding-breakout form, or at least something resembling it.