Jared McCain's Big Week
I'm happy that the Sixers have something to be excited about
I had written a solid Mavs overreaction post from their fourth straight loss, life got busy, and then they beat down the Spurs tonight… so that aged poorly. So, I decided that we can appreciate Jared McCain’s insane run he’s on (interestingly, his Duke teammate is playing extremely well relative to this draft class as well).
Since November 8th, McCain’s been averaging 26 points and 4 assists over five games, shooting 48/44/100 from the field. He has the highest +/- on the team among the top 9 minutes-getters in those five games at -4 (which is not that impressive in a vacuum, but his friends Joel and Paul are at -16 in two games and -28 in four games, respectively).
In his first IST game versus the Knicks, he started his game with exactly what Joel Embiid loves for his backcourt teammates (like Marco Belinelli and Laker legend JJ Redick) to do:
On the season (so not just the last week), he has the 17th highest BPM in the NBA, just ahead of Victor Wembanyama and Luka Doncic. Among 28 high-usage players (28% usage and above), he is tenth in TS%, has a higher AST% than De'Aaron Fox and Donovan Mitchell, and a lower TOV% than everyone except for his teammate, Tyrese Maxey. He’s not even producing at exceptional rates in the PnR though, only averaging .91 points per possession (about the 58th percentile).
Primarily, he’s finding open shots in the right moments. See here as he misses a layup, but then finds a wide open corner 3 after Yabusele get the offensive board.
So, he’s not Trae Young right now running 472 PnR’s per game, but he’s just making the right decisions and hitting shots. He’s shooting 50% on catch and shoot threes!
So, we’ll see how the season goes for him. When Maxey comes back, McCain’s opportunities will almost certainly diminish. But, with the Sixers at 2-10, you really wonder about the year already for this team. So, at least they have this bright spot!