Sixers guard Jared McCain was named the NBA's Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month for November, the league announced. It is McCain's first official award as an NBA player, and it comes as early as possible.
In 18 games (seven starts) during 2024-25, McCain has averaged 16.0 points, 2.6 assists and 2.5 rebounds in 25.2 minutes per game, shooting 44.8 percent from the field and making 36.4 percent of his long-range tries on 6.1 three-point attempts per game. McCain posted a 58.5 true shooting percentage during the month, above the league's average.
The 20-year-old guard, drafted No. 16 overall out of Duke last June, has been a revelation in every sense of the word. After an underwhelming run in NBA Summer League in July, a strong training camp and preseason launched McCain onto the fringes of Sixers head coach Nick Nurse's rotation.
It took a handful of games for McCain to receive a chance at extended run, but once the opportunity came, McCain ran with it. In his first game with at least 30 minutes of action, McCain scored 18 points and received an autographed jersey from LeBron James. It was enough to crack the door open, and McCain went on to kick it down.
McCain posted a ridiculous seven-game stretch in which he scored at least 20 points in every contest, averaging 26.1 points and 4.3 assists per game, shooting 50.8 percent from the field on 18.0 shot attempts per game and an absurd 45.6 percent from three-point range on an even more absurd 9.7 long-range tries per contest.
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Between brutal losing streaks, off-court controversies and constant injury setbacks, it is no secret that this season has been a complete catastrophe for the Sixers so far. The largest shining light amid all of that, though, has been McCain. He worked his way into Nurse's starting five — creating a dynamic backcourt pairing with Tyrese Maxey — and proved that there is a serious chance McCain could become a star player in the NBA.
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