Sixers Assign Jared McCain to the G League for the Second Time

As we covered Friday, Jared McCain is having a sophomore season to forget. A UCL injury in his right thumb delayed his season debut until early November, and he still hasn't recaptured the magic that lit the Philadelphia region on fire last fall before a torn meniscus prematurely ended his rookie campaign in December.

Despite those struggles, Sixers head coach Nick Nurse kept McCain in his rotation and gave him nearly two months to get back in rhythm. But in recent games, his playing time finally began to dip to less than 10 minutes per night. He didn't get off the bench at all during Friday's come-from-behind 117-115 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

On Saturday, the Sixers announced that they assigned McCain to their G League affiliate, the Delaware Blue Coats. The Blue Coats have back-to-back road games against the Noblesville Boom—the Indiana Pacers' G League affiliate—on Sunday and Monday before a four-day layoff. The Sixers face the Pacers on Monday and Phoenix Suns on Tuesday, so McCain figures to be unavailable for those two games before he potentially rejoins the team ahead of Thursday's home game against the Houston Rockets.

The big question is whether those two games against the Boom can help get him back on track.

Will G League kickstart McCain's sophomore campaign?

Shortly after McCain made his season debut, the Sixers assigned him to the Blue Coats back in mid-November. He finished with 10 points on 3-of-10 shooting, three assists and two rebounds in 20 minutes in his first game against the Greensboro Swarm, and he had 15 points on 6-of-13 shooting, six assists and two rebounds against the same opponent two days later.

McCain didn't make much of an impact immediately upon his return to the Sixers, although he did chain together three straight games with at least 15 points each shortly thereafter. It's mostly been a slog for him ever since, though.

McCain is always going to be a defensive target until he improves on that end of the floor, but his three-level scoring ability and passing vision helped outweigh those negatives last year. However, McCain seems far more uncertain on offense this year, which has led to him averaging only 6.3 points in 17.3 minutes per game while shooting a ghastly 35.4 percent overall and 32.3 percent from three-point range.

Depending on which direction the Sixers take ahead of the Feb. 5 NBA trade deadline, they might need to rely on McCain more moving forward than they have thus far this season. Quentin Grimes has the right to veto any trade involving him since he signed his one-year, $8.7 million qualifying offer, but the Sixers could duck under the luxury-tax line if they send him elsewhere for future draft capital without taking salary back. If Grimes stays in Philadelphia past the trade deadline, though, McCain might find it tough to get consistent minutes this season.

Either way, the Sixers need to figure out how to get McCain going. If they don't re-sign Grimes this offseason, McCain might be their top guard off the bench next season. Since Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe now project as the Sixers' long-term starting backcourt, McCain is their lone blue-chip prospect whom they can eventually dangle on the trade market. However, they should not sell low on him now with his value at its nadir.

The presence of Maxey, Edgecombe and Grimes makes McCain more of a luxury than a necessity for the Sixers this season, but that might not be the case moving forward. It's often difficult for coaches to balance their win-now impulses with the development of young players, so the G League should afford McCain a longer runway to get back into rhythm than his spot minutes with the Sixers gave him.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM.

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