Sixers

Should We Start Worrying About Jared McCain?

By Sean Barnard

Published: Nov 18th, 2025 · 2:08 PM EST

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Jared McCain was the biggest bright spot in an otherwise miserable 2024 season for the Sixers. The 16th overall pick averaged 15.3 points, 2.6 assists, and 2.4 rebounds while displaying some advanced off-ball movement and a lifeline to the offense across his 23 games. Now a month into this Sixers’ season, McCain has more DNP-Coaches’ Decisions than made baskets and has suited up for a pair of G League games. He has yet to look like any semblance of the player from last year.

At 21 years old, there is still a bright future for the Duke product. But there are some early signs of this shaping up to be a lost season for a variety of reasons.

Sorting through what is a fair level of concern for McCain at the early stages of the year:

Jared McCain’s Injury Concerns

After looking to be on a clear path to earning Rookie of the Year, McCain’s season was cut short due to a torn meniscus. He underwent surgery in December and reportedly had the full meniscus repair, not the removal. This has been the opposite route of what Joel Embiid has typically elected, and usually offers a better recovery prognosis, but a longer timeframe.

McCain went through the entire recovery process from the knee injury and was shaping up to be ready for opening night. But the former 10th-ranked recruit suffered a torn UCL in the thumb of his shooting hand in a workout in September. He was forced to miss the entirety of training camp due to the issue and was held out of the opening six games because of it.

From a preparation standpoint, these injuries also offered different hurdles. McCain was able to work through some stationary shooting and gradually scale up the intensity while recovering from the meniscus tear. However, his fitness level was a difficult issue, with him having to stay off the knee for stretches. While recovering from the UCL tear, McCain was pretty open in discussing his optimism for maintaining his fitness level. But given the injury occurring on his shooting hand, he was forced to go several weeks without shooting a basketball or dribbling with his dominant hand.

Individually, each of these injuries are difficult to overcome. Together, even more so, especially considering the level of roster changes around him while he has been sidelined.

Nick Nurse’s Jared McCain Concerns

McCain was officially cleared to make his season debut on November 4th. He played 15:09 of game action against the Bulls, shooting 0-for-4 from the field and adding two assists and a rebound. He was held out of the following game, which was a back-to-back, then did not see the court in the next game, in what was deemed a coach’s decision.

McCain has played in four total games and posted play times of 8:51, 6:48, and 5:06 in the three games since. In total he has played 36 minutes this season across four games. The 21-year-old has yet to score a point, shooting 0-for-9 from the field and adding four assists, two rebounds, and a steal.

While this is a lesser opportunity than just about anyone would guess, Nick Nurse has made it clear the culture he is trying to establish. Perhaps the better example was the head coach defending his decision to keep the starters in the game during the November 5th loss to the Cavaliers.

Playing on the second night of a back-to-back on the road against a legitimate Eastern Conference contender is a tough spot. The Sixers ended up losing 132-121, with the game never really being as close as this score indicates. Cleveland leaped out to a 41-27 lead in the first quarter and built their lead to as many as 26 in the wire-to-wire victory. This felt like the first true opportunity to capitalize on some old-school load management. But instead, Tyrese Maxey, V.J. Edgecombe, and Kelly Oubre Jr. each logged 36+ minutes of action, as has become commonplace.

When asked his logic following the game, Nurse told reporters this, via Ky Carlin of Sixers Wire

“We were considering it, and then we kind of just made a run back with a couple minutes to go to get it down to I think, 10, or 11, or nine, or something like that, and I don’t know,” Nurse explained. “We’re in a stage right now where I’m way more in the we gotta continue to show fight.”

“We’re trying to dig ourselves out of some stuff from last year, right? And the attitude and the fight and all that stuff needs to be something that we got to continue to establish, right? Once we started making a little run there, I was not gonna pull the plug on that run until it was time. And to be honest with you, I’m proud of it. I’m glad we left them in. I’m proud of the way they played to try to continue to fight, and they cut that thing down to, I don’t know, I can’t remember, but it was probably around 10 with a couple minutes to go, and I don’t know, we were just in one or two or three of the games just like that, so anything could happen in this league.”

To bring this back to McCain, the calculation from Nick Nurse seems to pretty clearly be that this is not a guy who is ready to contribute to winning right now, and he has to earn the opportunity. It’s fair to assess that the NBA pace of play currently looks fast for McCain, and he has yet to find a flow in his limited minutes. Personally, I would push back to say what he flashed last year should command a bit longer leash, and attempting to accelerate the process would be best for all parties.

On a wider scale, this level of fight is an important message that must be established within the walls of the locker room. But this has to be within reason.

Maxey continues to lead the NBA in minutes played at 40.4 per game. For reference, Josh Hart led the NBA in minutes last year at 37.6 per game. Monta Ellis was the last player to average more than 40 minutes per game across a season in 2010-11. Perhaps even more noteworthy, VJ Edgecombe is second on the list of minutes leaders at 37.3. Luka Doncic and Cade Cunningham are the only other players to average more than 37 minutes per game in the league so far this season. Maxey and Edgecombe absolutely should be logging a heavy workload and be primary contributors to this team, but to be leading the league by this margin feels a bit extreme.

The Sixers elected to send McCain down to the Delaware Blue Coats, where he suited up for a pair of games last week. He played 20 minutes in each matchup, finishing with 10 points, three assists, and two rebounds in the first game and 15 points, six assists, and two rebounds in the second. This includes shooting just 37.5% from the floor and 11.1% on three-point attempts.

The appeal of him having a chance to play with some basketball freedom in a lower-leverage situation is clear, but Nurse did not seem to indicate there is a plan for this to happen again in the short term. Whether or not the level of opportunity on the court with the Sixers expands in the coming weeks will say a lot about expectations for the remainder of McCain’s season. Nurse has drawn his line in the sand for the standard that players need to reach to play a role, but McCain isn’t going to get better sitting on the bench either.

In the long run, there should not be much of a change in how McCain is viewed. The Sixers have officially picked up his club option for next year, and he is under team control in 2026-27 as well. But this year is shaping up to having the early signs of a lost season for a variety of reasons for the expected young star. Injuries could occur to change the outlook in front of him, but McCain’s place in the pecking order is a pretty jarring takeaway from the early parts of this season.