The Sixers decided to assign second-year guard Jared McCain to the G-League on Saturday, driving home what a struggle year two has been for last year’s 16th overall pick.
After suffering a meniscus injury that ended his rookie season in December 2024, McCain finished rehabilitation just in time to suffer a preseason injury, tearing the UCL in his right thumb during a team workout this past September. It took training camp and preseason away from a player trying to find his new normal, and McCain’s season debut was delayed until November, when he played 15 ineffective minutes in a Sixers road loss against the Chicago Bulls. McCain’s first made shot of the season didn’t come until November 19th, in a similarly ineffective performance against the Toronto Raptors.
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Notably, that mini breakthrough came after McCain’s first trip to Delaware of the season, with the Sixers sending McCain on an early-season “get right” trip with the Blue Coats. Efficiency struggles took place in Delaware, too, but the confidence gained from that run seemed to spark McCain, who had the best extended stretch of his season from around Thanksgiving through the start of December, culminating in a 25-minute outing against the Wizards in which he scored 14 points, five assists, and three rebounds, with McCain posting a remarkable +37 in a big Sixers win.
Since then, success has mostly eluded McCain, and he has struggled mightily to hit shots or stay on the floor in any meaningful way. While matchup issues on defense and a lack of explosion were predictable, reflective of a smaller guard who was not an explosive athlete pre-injury, his outside shooting issues are genuinely shocking. McCain is shooting 32.3 percent from three on just over three attempts per game, often stepping or passing out of looks he would have launched with confidence during his rookie year.
(There is no avoiding, of course, that his inside-the-arc play has been a disaster. McCain is shooting just 38.2 percent on all two-point shots and has had to live primarily out of midrange jumpers and off-hand layups, coming up empty on the bulk of his attempts.)
McCain played less than 10 minutes in four consecutive games before earning his first DNP (coach’s decision) in two months in a heartbreaking Sixers loss to the Cavs on Friday. A day prior, Nick Nurse told reporters at practice that the subject of sending McCain to Delaware hadn’t come up yet in spite of his dwindling role and poor run of form.
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“We might have some meetings later on today or tomorrow,” Nick Nurse said Thursday. “I think it’s always a possibility, but we haven’t had those discussions yet.”
Delaware has two games against Indiana’s G-League affiliate on Sunday and Monday, providing McCain two potential opportunities to play over the weekend. That should presumably rule him out for Philadelphia’s meeting with the Indiana Pacers on Monday, in addition to their Tuesday back-to-back against the Phoenix Suns, making his likely return to the Sixers’ lineup next Thursday’s matchup with the Houston Rockets.
With McCain as an important developmental building block for the organization, the head coach has been adamant that the solution for McCain is as simple as getting more minutes and comfort under his belt, and until this recent run of games, Nurse had continued to search for minutes for McCain despite diminishing returns. Even without factoring in the long-term benefits of getting McCain right, it has hurt losing a player from their rotation considered one of their best and most reliable shooters coming into the season. In the recent miniseries against Cleveland, the Cavs were able to load up on the interior and help off players like Dominick Barlow and Jabari Walker to prevent clean looks at the basket for Embiid, Maxey, and others. McCain’s inclusion in the lineup brings other challenges, but a “normal” version of the Duke product opens the floor up on offense.
Will this be the key to getting McCain back on track, or is he staring down a lost season midway through the year? We’ll find out soon enough.
