How Does the Jared McCain Injury Change the Sixers' Plans for This Season?

MOC on replacing the Sixers' suddenly surprisingly irreplaceable rookie guard.

In a vlog that he released Saturday night, Sixers rookie sensation Jared McCain essentially confirmed that he will be out for the season. This most likely means was able to get the “repair” version of the surgery on his torn meniscus, which is great news for his long term health, but requires a much longer recovery timeline than the more traditional meniscectomy surgery, which generally has about a six week recovery timeline.

Naturally, this brings about major questions for the Sixers’ immediate future. McCain had been playing like the Sixers’ fourth best player with the team at full health, and with this particular version of the surgery he got, he is almost certainly out for the season.

So, since the Sixers have a couple of serious questions to consider in the wake of this news, I figured it would be a good idea to do a deep dive here in this piece. Let’s dig in.

Do the Sixers need to trade for another guard?

With McCain out, the Sixers now have an extremely underwhelming group of guards coming off their bench. On the one hand, it does free them up to play more of their big lineups with Kelly Oubre Jr. or Caleb Martin at shooting guard, but on the other hand, the lack of ball handling and shooting when Maxey is on the bench is liable to become a huge problem.

Kyle Lowry, while still smart and good for a few hustle plays per game, cannot get anywhere off the dribble and is starting to get his pocket picked at an alarming rate. Notably, before Monday night, Lowry had made one field goal in the entire month of December. (He has now made three.) Eric Gordon, while I still believe his jumper will come around, cannot be trusted to handle the ball at all. Jeff Dowtin is a AAAA baseball player – he is basketball Jake Cave.

That leaves Reggie Jackson, who at this point is the only player other than Maxey that I would trust to dribble the ball across half court against a press. Jackson might be cooked in terms of being a scorer, but he’s likely still capable of running the offense and getting the ball from point A to point B. At this stage, he’s the guy I would make the primary backup point guard.

That of course begs the question of whether the Sixers should trade for another guard, and the unfortunate reality is that their options are extremely limited in that department. There are a couple of bargain bin options that might make sense – former Sixers Alec Burks and Shake Milton come to mind as options there – but outside of that, it feels counterproductive to use up precious assets and salary filler for a player who could move the needle at backup guard.

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One possibility I’d consider: if Caleb Martin continues to absolutely stink, I might try to trade him and a second round pick to Detroit in exchange for Malik Beasley. He’s currently having an excellent year in Detroit and he would fill the movement shooting void left behind by McCain’s absence. Especially if the Sixers were to also try and acquire another defensive-minded wing – more on that in a second – it would make a lot of sense to also trade for Beasley.

All things considered, I would say the chances of the Sixers having to acquire another guard to fill McCain’s absence are reasonably high. The current group of backup guards might be fine when Maxey is playing 40 minutes per game in the playoffs, but they are just not good enough to carry the load for a team that actually needs to win enough regular season games to get there in the first place.

Does McCain’s injury re-open the possibility that he gets traded?

My beliefs as to whether or not McCain will get traded have been flip flopping nonstop since draft night. Prior to the season, I was convinced he would become part of a win-now trade. As he proved himself to be an absolute stud throughout the first two months of the season, I started penciling him in as untouchable. But now, after he’s likely going to be out for the year, and the Sixers still hold out some hope of contending this year, I have to wonder if it’s back on the table for him to be traded.

McCain (obviously) cannot help them this year, and they could get a lot for him in a trade. If I were the GM of an opposing team, I’d say he has the value of 2-3 first round picks. They have to at least consider it if the right deal is out there.

I continue to be laser-focused on the possibility of trading for Herb Jones , and I wonder if the Sixers could possibly acquire Jones perhaps even with another pick coming back to them if they sent McCain to New Orleans. If the Sixers wanted to pony up and go after Cam Johnson, they likely could do so without including draft capital if they were to include Jared. That type of deal would be especially intriguing for the Pelicans or Nets given the fact that they likely are ready to tank this season, so they could acquire a future star without worsening their lottery odds at all given that McCain will be out. (If that type of return for a prospect of McCain's caliber doesn't seem quite sexy enough to you, fair enough, but there aren't likely to be starrier options available to the Sixers at the deadline this year.)

This would obviously be contingent upon the Sixers being healthy and trending in the right direction when the deadline comes near, and even then, I’m not certain I would do either of those deals – the potential for McCain to be a long term tentpole for this franchise is probably too intriguing for them to punt on it. Still, if Embiid rips off a six-week stretch where he looks like an MVP and the Sixers start climbing up the standings, I imagine the question of whether or not McCain is untouchable will be a major point of contention. You only get so many prime Embiid years, and keeping McCain would mean sitting on a super, super valuable trade piece that can’t help you one bit on the court. It’s a question worth asking.

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Mike O’Connor is the best O’Connor in basketball writing. Previously of The Athletic, you can find Mike on Twitter @MOConnor_NBA. Mike’s writing is brought to you by Body Bio, supplements based on science, focusing on your gut and brain health.