Of Course You Revisit the Jared McCain Trade After a Night in Which Tyrese Maxey Played 47 Minutes and the Sixers Brought One Guard Off the Bench

Sixers

Say what you’ll about Joel Embiid being unavailable for Game 2 on Wednesday night time, or the Sixers taking pictures 21% from the flooring throughout the fourth quarter, however the one downside that may’t be fastened is that they’ve little to work with on the bench.

Quentin Grimes is the de facto sixth man, taking part in 22.4 minutes per recreation in these playoffs and averaging 7.1 PPG. They’ll go to one among Andre Drummond or Adem Bona to spell Embiid, OR, in the case of Game 2, put one in the beginning lineup and convey the different off the bench. They each wound up in foul bother and the Sixers turned to Dominick Barlow late, who performed some very nice high-energy glue minutes to assist maintain this factor shut.

Otherwise, there’s no one to show to, until Nick Nurse desires to offer Justin Edwards a run, and that is naturally pushed the Jared McCain discourse again to the floor.

For what it is value, McCain is simply averaging 5.3 minutes and 3 factors per recreation throughout these playoffs. But that is extra as a result of the Oklahoma City Thunder are a wagon and they’ll Cason Wallace, Alex Caruso, Jaylin Williams, Isaiah Joe, and Aaron Wiggins in addition to McCain. He performed quarter-hour in Game 1 towards the Lakers however solely logged 21 minutes in three video games towards the Suns.

The Sixers aren’t the Thunder, and cannot go 10 deep in the convention semifinals, so McCain can be getting minutes towards the Knicks, particularly with Embiid out. Tyrese Maxey performed 47 high-usage minutes on Wednesday night time and could not purchase a bucket in the fourth. Paul George performed 43 minutes and VJ Edgecombe and Kelly Oubre Jr. 40 every. Nurse did not convey a guard or a wing off the bench in addition to Grimes. Even Cam Payne, if he had managed to remain wholesome, may have spelled Maxey for 2 minutes sooner or later in the second half.

It’s irritating as a result of right here the Sixers are as soon as once more, with a likelihood to get out of the second spherical for the first time since George W. Bush was a first-year president. And but they’ve little depth as a result of they determined to punt at the commerce deadline, and do nothing to enhance the group.

Say what you’ll about McCain – perhaps he is the man, perhaps not. Maybe he can be an excessive amount of of a defensive legal responsibility to play towards this Knicks group, but when not him, you wanted one other physique, and the Sixers haven’t got that. Coaches all the time trim their rotations in the second spherical, however the Sixers are slimmer than a Hollywood celeb on Ozempic.

Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports activities since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports activities division and began with the Union throughout the group’s 2010 inaugural season. He went to the tutorial powers of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. electronic mail – okay.kinkead@sportradar.com