Two Ghosts Are Haunting the 76ers Through This Postseason Run

Philadelphia’s bench has been lacking this postseason, while two players that were essentially given away are blossoming into stars.

76ers guard Jared McCain reacts to his three pointer against the Bucks. | Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

The high of the 76ers’ first-round performance against the Celtics this postseason has quickly given way to a low against the Knicks.

The 76ers are missing some bodies. This is not a unique problem in the NBA, as the postseason often puts a spotlight on the glaring holes in a team’s lineup. But the wound stings a bit extra for the 76ers right now because while they struggle to fill their playoff minutes, two of their former players are in the midst of breakout campaigns for other teams looking for a title.

Two ghosts—Jared McCain and Julian Champagnie—are haunting the Philadelphia front office during this postseason, and in Game 2 against the Knicks those ghosts became impossible to ignore.

Jared McCain was dealt at the trade deadline for basically nothing

Thunder guard Jared McCain celebrates after a play against the Lakers. | Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

The 76ers selected McCain out of Duke in the first round of the 2024 draft. He was immediately popular, and averaged 15.3 points per game through the opening months of his rookie campaign before a meniscus tear cut his season short. In 2026, the addition of VJ Edgecombe pushed McCain a bit further down the depth chart, but it was still extremely easy to see the value he presented to the rotation.

But just before the trade deadline, the 76ers traded McCain away to the Thunder in exchange for a first-round pick in 2026 and three future second-round picks. While picking up draft assets from Oklahoma City’s war chest full of picks is a fine prize in theory, it was odd that the 76ers, who were by all accounts looking to contend this year, didn’t get any player, let alone a potential difference maker back in the deal.

The accumulation of assets made it feel as though the McCain trade was a precursor to another deal the team would make before the deadline——one that needed a few more picks involved to grease the wheels—but no deal came. Instead, the 76ers were just left with four new draft picks.

"Because we're playing well, we were trying to upgrade the team and add to the team now," 76ers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey told reporters at the time of the trade. "That was goal No. 1. Obviously, no deal materialized, including using the picks we got from the Jared deal. That's why we did that move a little early. We were trying to reuse those draft picks to add now." 

Trading away a contributing player for picks is one thing, but doing so because you were going to use those picks on second trade that never came together is quite another. While that was not a great look, Morey insisted that the price was right to move McCain at the time.

"I am quite confident we were selling high," Morey said. "Obviously, time will tell." 

Time is, indeed, telling. The deal looked bad enough in the moment. The chances of any of the draft picks the 76ers traded for turning into a player with the ability to contribute as McCain did feels extremely thin. But McCain’s performance for the Thunder this season and now in this postseason is making the trade look far, far worse.

On Thursday night, McCain dropped 18 points in 18 minutes off the bench for the Thunder, including shooting 4 of 5 from beyond the arc. On Wednesday night, just three 76ers played off the bench, combining for just 15 points in 56 minutes on the court. Further, star guard Tyrese Maxey played a whopping 47 minutes, and did not leave the court for the entire second half, mainly because the team lacked the depth to bring in a guard that could play quarterback while Maxey was on the bench. In a game Philadelphia wound up losing by just six points, it’s not a stretch to think that McCain’s presence on the bench could have made the difference.

McCain rubbed a bit of salt in the wound during his postgame interview with the Prime Video desk, though he did so in extremely endearing, extremely Jared McCain fashion.

“I thank God every day. This is a blessing. When I first got traded, it was heartbreaking,” McCain said of his move to the Thunder. “I didn’t understand what was going on, but coming here it’s been nothing but love. I share my gratitude with the team—maybe a little too much sometimes, sometimes I get on their nerves—but I really appreciate them.”

Watch this interview and try and imagine giving this type of energy away for picks.

“They didn’t sell high enough!” Blake Griffin told McCain as the interview was coming to a close. McCain laughed, saying “Shout out Philly!” before signing off.

Ouch.

Julian Champagnie has developed into an everyday starter for the core of the Spurs

Spurs forward Julian Champagnie reacts after scoring a three against the Trail Blazers. | Scott Wachter-Imagn Images

What’s worse than giving away one key playoff contributor for nothing? How about two. Julian Champagnie went undrafted in 2022, but signed a two-way deal with the 76ers. He played in just two NBA games for Philadelphia that year, splitting time with the team’s G League affiliate the Delaware Blue Coats.

Champagnie was waived by the 76ers in February of 2023, and picked up by the Spurs two days later. Waiving a player that went undrafted the previous season and hadn’t yet proven a contributor is not exactly a shocker—teams shuffle their rosters around all the time looking to find advantages on the edges. But the reason the 76ers waived Champagnie was not exactly that.

In the corresponding move with Champagnie’s waiving, the 76ers signed Mac McClung to a two-way deal of his own. McClung was less than a week away from becoming the first G League player to compete in the NBA dunk contest. Instead, because Philly signed him to a two-way deal, he was able to compete as a member of the 76ers.

To be fair, McClung’s numbers with the Blue Coats were great, but the timing of the move, and the fact that he only appeared in two games for the 76ers that year, make it pretty clear that the main goal of signing him was to see him score 10s in the dunk contest as a Sixer. That plan worked, as McClung won his first of three consecutive dunk contests that year.

But the long tail of the decision is a pretty brutal look for the 76ers. McClung remains a G League journeyman, while Champagnie is the type of three-and-D wing that every team in looking to lock down in the modern NBA, staring 68 games for the Spurs this year and averaging 11.1 points per game on 38.1% shooting from beyond the arc. While no one could have known how Champagnie would develop over the next three seasons, the 76ers had him in their services, and gave him up basically out of vanity.

For the 76ers, the only thing to do is look forward

76ers center Joel Embiid reacts during the first quarter of Game 1 of against the Knicks. | Brad Penner-Imagn Images

In the NBA, as in life, there are no take-backs. The McCain move felt pretty baffling at the time, though it’s doubtful anyone was arguing it would cost the 76ers some playoff wins in February. The Champagnie decision is more understandable as something that must have felt like a small decision at the time, but three years later looks atrocious given how things developed.

The 76ers are where they are right now—in a 2–0 hole to the Knicks in the Eastern Conference semifinals with the series heading back to Philadelphia. McCain and Champagnie are where they are right now—seemingly on course for a showdown in the Western Conference finals.

It is frustrating for any team to have missed two emerging stars they had, and doubly frustrating when that team’s mantra for the past decade plus has been to “Trust the Process.” McCain is exactly the type of guard that the Sixers need right now to give Maxey some relief, and Champagnie is a guy any team would want, but would especially help the 76ers as they are forced to go small without Embiid on the floor.

Maybe the picks the 76ers got back for McCain will turn into something special, but there’s no doubt that if they could, they’d take the guys who are already proving they are special right now.

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