Why the Dialogue Around the Jared McCain Trade Has Gone Too Far

PHILADELPHIA — As of last week, Nick Nurse claimed to have watched just five to 10 minutes of Jared McCain's play since he was dealt to the Oklahoma City Thunder ahead of the trade deadline in early February.

Philadelphia natives far and wide have done more than watch five to 10 minutes. They've studied every dribble. Every step. Every shot.

They've balled their fists in anger as McCain has flourished as a reserve on the defending champions' bench, every made 3 a reminder that the Sixers gave up a young, cost-controlled player who supplied a skill that has often evaded the team this season.

Perhaps it's the arrogance that followed the decision.

Less than a day after the Sixers made no additions at the deadline, Daryl Morey told reporters he was "quite confident we were selling high" on McCain.

"Obviously, time will tell," he said.

Any good analytics guru will contend that an 11-game sample size is far too little data to make any conclusions. That is true.

That line of thought is difficult to spin when McCain has largely returned to the player he showed to be before a meniscus injury derailed his rookie season. His shot—never a doubt in the first place—has picked back up where it left off before that fateful night against the Indiana Pacers over a year ago.

The data will likely continue to support the statement it's made thus far. Maybe the volume will make the move look less laughable once Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell return from injuries. But the player archetype is not changing.

The only way this trade will ever be justified is if the Sixers use the draft capital they got back—a 2026 first-round pick via the Houston Rockets and three second-round picks—to acquire significant pieces via trade or mine a young diamond.

And yet, the dialogue around the trade has spiraled out of control.

The reality?

There would always be questions about the defensive viability of a backcourt featuring McCain and Tyrese Maxey. That's witthout considering prized rookie VJ Edgecombe, who is such a hand-in-glove fit with Maxey that McCain's opportunity in Philadelphia would perpetually be linked to the bench.

That will hold true regardless of who is steering the Sixers' ship from the front office and the sidelines, now and in the future.

You know what didn't have to hold true?

The way McCain was used on this team.

A record of miles traveled on offense may be the simplest way to illustrate how McCain has been deployed differently with the Thunder.

McCain traveled 25 miles on offense across 37 games with the Sixers this season. According to NBA.com, he's traveled nearly 37% of that total in just 11 games with Oklahoma City.

He is on pace to reach his total distance traveled on offense with the Sixers in seven fewer games with the Thunder.

The Thunder are actually assimilating his skill as a movement shooter into their offense rather than stationing him in a corner as a spacer for the fulcrums of the offense. They're also insulating his defensive pains with their array of perimeter defenders and rim protectors.

Trading away perhaps your best shooter sounds ludicrous for a team that is 20th in the league in 3-point percentage.

Is it really that ludicrous when you weren't even deploying that shooter in a way that maximized his skills? Another reality to confront is that one shooter was not solving the Sixers' problems from deep. They were mediocre from beyond the arc before the trade, and they're mediocre-to-bad from beyond the arc after it. McCain, by himself, was not changing how defenses guarded the Sixers.

Perhaps he would've served as a special mechanism in an ecosystem that deployed multiple high-level shooters who functioned well without the ball in their hands. This take would be different if the Sixers subtracted McCain from a roster that also had, say, Isaiah Joe because three shooters can bend a defensive strategy.

Subtracting one combo shooter from a roster that had two of them doesn't change much.

Speaking of the way he was deployed, the way things are going in Philadelphia, there's something to be said for the likelihood that McCain would've outlasted Nurse.

The life cycle of a coach is such that McCain probably would've won that battle. But who's to say the next coach wouldn't feel similarly to how Nurse felt?

Maybe a new coach would've followed a new president of basketball operations. Is there any guarantee that that new executive would've seen McCain as part of the franchise's future?

There also exists the real possibility that there is no turnover from the front office to the coaching staff. In theory, there would be an opening for McCain next season, when Quentin Grimes comes off the books.

That theory was jeopardized by the fact that Morey told reporters that the Sixers hope to re-sign Grimes.

So where was McCain going to fit into this equation as things currently stand? How was he, constantly vacillating between the edge of the rotation and the depths of the bench, going to change anything about this season?

"But this is a business at the end of the day."

Perhaps the biggest feature lost by the McCain trade was the goodwill he brought to the locker room.

Has the team's morale been off since the west coast trip prior to the All-Star break?

"Maybe a little bit," Maxey thinks.

"We just won three straight games, though. So, I ain't about to just harp on it too bad. It was tough, we lost however many straight and then we won three straight and now we lost two straight. It's the NBA. It is what it is," Maxey said after the Sixers' blowout loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday.

It is what he said next that speaks volumes.

"It's hard, you know. The trade deadline was difficult. It's life. But we've moved on from it. That's something we have to put in our rearview mirror. If we're going to sit there and dwell on the trade deadline, that was four weeks ago. That ain't going to get us nowhere."

OK, but the trade deadline wasn't mentioned in the question. Mr. Maxey pointed to that event on his own.

So, is the team dwelling on that transaction?

Maxey doesn't think so.

"Jared was a close friend of ours. Great teammate, great person. I definitely think we miss him. Of course. I ain't going to lie and say I don't miss Jared," Maxey said.

"But this is a business at the end of the day. I've seen many people traded I didn't want to get traded. Whatever the case may be, people left in free agency. You can't dwell on that. You got to focus on the people in this building. These are the people you're going to be with the rest of the season."

The Sixers can either let that day change their season or they can continue to pursue a goal that is bigger than that move. Maxey claims the team is focused on the latter.

They are 5-7 since the trade deadline. After coughing one up to the Los Angeles Lakers in the hours after the deadline, they went into Phoenix and bullied a good Suns team.

Their losses since then have had more to do with Joel Embiid being absent than anything else.

So be mad that Philadelphia once again avoided the luxury tax. Be furious that they didn't upgrade the reserve center spot when Jock Landale was available for cash considerations. Be livid that the Sixers saw Maxey's growth and Embiid's inspiring return to form and did nothing to capitalize on the opportunity.

But the daily outcry over McCain has gone beyond reason.