When he was at Duke, Jared McCain quickly won people over with his talent and charisma and the same thing has been happening with the Philadelphia 76ers. Last season, he got a shot when several players went down with injuries and did well enough to be the leading contender for Rookie of the Year before suffering an injury of his own.
He’s been working his way back and faces the same questions he faced last year: can he win minutes in the backcourt? With Kyle Lowery, Tyrese Maxey Eric Gordon, VJ Edgecombe and Hunter Sallis, there’s plenty of competition. Lowery is 39 though and Gordon is 36, so they won’t be playing much longer and won’t be pulling heavy minutes.
So the opportunity is there for McCain to excel again and given what we’ve seen of him before, McCain will be smart enough to learn as much as he can from Lowery and Gordon.
“I think, coming in as a rookie, you never know with these superstars how they’re going to be, how they’re going to react, especially to me, seeing my social media, a lot of people have that first impression that is not always the best when I meet people. But for him, it was just that he was way more chill than I thought he was going to be, and that’s when I first met him. I think seeing him throughout the season, seeing what the media says, and then actually talking to him in person, it’s like he’s just misunderstood in a lot of ways.”
Embiid has had a rough time with Philly media and fans and McCain’s one of the few guys who have stood up for him. Think that will make an impression? Our guess is that loyalty breeds loyalty and that McCain just did a lot for team chemistry.