With the 2024-25 Sixers season officially in the rearview mirror, the time has come to evaluate the few highs and many lows of a disastrous campaign in which the team only managed 24 wins. We will do so in "Sixers year-in-review," a series assessing each individual Sixers player's performance this year based on numbers, film and quotes, while also looking ahead to the future.
Up next: Jared McCain.
Selected with the No. 16 overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, McCain quickly went from the rotation bubble to proving just how gifted of an offensive talent he is, turning heads with dynamic scoring and shooting that had him at the forefront of early Rookie of the Year discussions.
McCain's encouraging rookie campaign was cut short after just 23 games when he suffered a season-ending meniscus tear in his knee. But the Duke product did more than enough in 2024-25 to prove that he is a far more significant piece of this puzzle than folks might have anticipated.
SIXERS YEAR-IN-REVIEW
Joel Embiid | Guerschon Yabusele | Paul George
What we learned in 2024-25
McCain is a potential foundational player whose presence should be factored into all roster decisions.
The Sixers have a 64 percent chance of making a top-six first-round pick this June, and President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey said in his exit interview on Sunday that if the team keeps their pick, they will choose the best player available regardless of position or team fit. So, the statement above does not necessarily mean the Sixers will allow McCain's emergence to prevent them from, for example, selecting Rutgers guard Dylan Harper if they land with the No. 2 overall pick. The sample size on McCain is not large enough to lock him into a featured role for the next several years; his defensive fit alongside Tyrese Maxey is not clear enough either.
But when the Sixers make major decisions this summer — the draft pick could be the only one unless teams begin calling on Paul George, which would be a surprise — what McCain did in November and December will at least be a real component within the team's calculus. His blend of scoring volume and efficiency was that impressive, and there are very clear areas for potential improvement moving forward. Above all else, McCain's work ethic and feel for the game have been so captivating that nobody inside the organization seems inclined to bet against him maximizing whatever potential exists.
Number to know
McCain in a seven-game stretch from Nov. 10 to Nov. 22: 26.1 points per game, 50.8 FG%, 45.6 3P% (9.7 3PA/G), 66.8 TS%
McCain's long stretch of terrific scoring in November and early games in December was really something to behold. With just a few weeks of NBA experience under his belt, McCain was putting the league on notice by torching all sorts of defensive coverages despite skyrocketing from the bottom of the scouting report to the absolute top of it during a stretch in which Maxey was sidelined, Embiid was laboring and Paul George was in and out of the lineup.
On Oct. 30, McCain made a comment in passing about how opposing defenses know three-point shooting is his strongest skill, saying that the word "shooter" would be on the scouting report… "if they even have me on the scout."
Two weeks later, McCain nearly dragged a devastated Sixers team to a win over a Cleveland Cavaliers team in the midst of a 15-game winning streak to open the season. Eventually winners of 64 games, the Cavaliers escaped Philadelphia with a win despite McCain scoring 34 points…
All six of Jared McCain's made threes vs. the Cleveland Cavaliers: pic.twitter.com/ocPJV3o546
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) November 14, 2024
And dishing out 10 assists:
Jared McCain's season-high in assists during 36 games at Duke last season was five.
In his 11th NBA game and first NBA start, he collected 10 assists alongside 34 points. Here is each one of those assists: pic.twitter.com/2pZNu711RT— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) November 14, 2024
After seeing plenty of exotic coverages in that game — including a box-and-one — McCain had a much different perspective
"It was pretty cool," McCain said. "When you notice it, like, 'Wow. I'm in an NBA game, and they're definitely playing me. They're not helping off of me,' it's pretty cool to notice that."
Sixers head coach Nick Nurse, who once utilized a box-and-one in the NBA Finals against Stephen Curry, was taken aback by what transpired that night.
"They even threw for one possession a box-and-one in there, which was pretty interesting," Nurse said. "I was thinking, 'Man, that's pretty high-level respect playing that on a rookie.' But he had it going."
Important film
The final game in that seven-game stint for McCain came in a win against the Brooklyn Nets. The Sixers had been lifeless for much of that game, but in the fourth quarter their guards made a collective decision that they would not lose. In the final six minutes of action, Maxey and McCain combined to take the Sixers' final eight shots of the game. Neither player missed:
When the Sixers found themselves trailing the Brooklyn Nets with six minutes left on Friday night, starting guards Jared McCain and Tyrese Maxey combined to take the team's next eight shot attempts — and they all went in.
Would you like to see every shot from that stretch? pic.twitter.com/lSbr5gFCau— Adam Aaronson (@SixersAdam) November 23, 2024
Why is this "important film" rather than just an exciting clip? Because it speaks to the upside that the Sixers should be chasing as they strive to make a Maxey/McCain backcourt viable on the defensive end. If they can just make it a passable proposition on that side of the ball, they will be able to generate so much offense together. Having two guards who are credible threats to pull up from 30 feet and more than capable scorers inside the arc while also having at least decent passing chops is a total offensive cheat code and gives the Sixers a remarkably high floor as a team on that end. This six-minute stretch was a glimpse into the ideal long-term outcome for McCain and Maxey as a tandem.
MORE: McCain, Maxey talk potential of partnership after late-game takeover
Salient soundbite
McCain on how he has improved in reading defenses with more playing time on Nov. 13.
"Instead of reading my defender, I'm reading the back-side defender, or not even reading the first help-side, I'm reading the second on the back-side, seeing if the big is pulling over, seeing if the help is crashing down to the baseline person or lift up to the wing and I can hit the wing when I'm driving baseline," McCain said. "Just reading defenses, I think it's going to come with time and watching film."
Question heading into the future
What will McCain's defensive capabilities be long-term?
McCain operating at a physical disadvantage as a smaller guard — he used this term himself in his exit interview on Sunday before calling an audible and using the word "medium" to appease Maxey, who has jokingly taken issue with the word "smaller" in previous press conferences — who does not have long arms or outlier athleticism. His effort and intelligence will help him out, but defending as a very young guard in the NBA is some of the toughest sledding there is.
Take Maxey, who shares McCain's intensity and feel, but is taller, has much longer arms and is a vastly superior athlete. It took Maxey until midway through his fourth NBA season to not be consistently picked on and taken advantage of; he was never a dreadful defender but seemed to be someone who would peak at being competent. Then came a mini-leap late in his fourth campaign and a massive one in his fifth season. Maxey became a standout playmaker on defense this season — perhaps the lone bright spot of a challenging season for the 24-year-old — and it was powered by tools that McCain just does not have available to him.
To some degree, Maxey's own defensive development is material to how much of it McCain needs to experience, as the bar lowers for the latter with each step forward taken by the former. And even if Maxey and McCain do end up being this team's starting guards for many years to come, they will be staggered quite a bit. But ultimately, these two players have so much offensive upside as a pairing that the Sixers need to do whatever they can to ensure they at least clear the lowest of thresholds in terms of defensive liability.
Contract information
McCain has three more years of cost-effective team control. He will become eligible to sign a contract extension during the 2027 offseason; if he does not do so by the start of the 2027-28 season he will become a restricted free agent in 2028.
• 2025-26: $4.2 million
• 2026-27: $4.4 million (team option)
• 2027-28: $6.7 million (team option)
MORE: Daryl Morey takes blame for disastrous season, talks offseason ahead
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