10 Reasonable Paul George Expectations & An Honest Look at Jared McCain's Summer League

Let's all be real for a minute about a couple of our new acquisitions.

Going by purely career history and vibes, 10 things we can probably expect from our (new) guy PG:

10. Urgency

He’s mentioned it on his podcast, during his time as a Clipper and even at his introductory Sixers presser, but he’s definitely talking like a guy who realizes he probably won’t get many more chances at the big one, and needs to capitalize on every opportunity to do so.

9. A true 3&D guy

Regardless of where you think his defense currently is, he’s still pretty damn good at it, and as we all know can bomb from pretty much anywhere on the court.

8. A guy who will willingly takeover

Self-explanatory.

7. Deep playoff experience

Three conference finals trips, to be exact.

6. A catch-and-shoot threat

He can obviously do so much more offensively, but having a guy over 6’6 who legitimately has no problem rising and firing from deep will do wonders for this team.

5. Willingness to “play the right way”

In quotes because he specifically said that — but we all know it basically meant he hated playing with James Harden, which we know about all too well. 

4. Another option when Embiid needs to miss a game or four

I’d rather not have our favorite Olympian lumber through 82 games. If we can get a healthy 60-64 and full use of all extremities going into the playoffs I’d much rather have that.

3. The last piece to a true big three

Whatever stock you still put into it, and whichever way your team building philosophy lies, Daryl Morey believes in the odds of a big 3 going the distance, or close to it.

2. Heightened expectations

Playtime has been over, but come training camp this is a team that will now be expected to be in the mix from beginning to the very end.

1. A chance to win the whole damn thing

He’s on the other side of his prime but still, he’s SO FUCKING GOOD and is coming here not to have the whole thing put on his back but to share in the fight with two other all-stars and that means something.

SPIKE’S CORNER - JARED MCCAIN IS GOING TO HAVE TO CONVINCE ME HE’S GOOD

Mike and I hadn’t done a normal podcast in about two weeks, because of a combination of a planned vacation for me and an unplanned sickness for Mike (that makes it sound more serious than it is, he’s fine). While I was happy to get back going last night, I was a little relieved that there was one subject we’d get to skip; Summer League. 

It’s not that I don’t enjoy Summer League, I do, it’s fine. I don’t enjoy it as much as I used to, and it seems like it’s twice as long as it used to be, but it’s basketball to watch, it’s totally fine. But Summer League is fun to talk about when good things are happening. The undrafted free agent you didn’t know was any good and now think will be a rotation player, the guy who came back for his second year at Summer League and now was “too good,” and of course the first round pick showing real promise. We got some version of the first two, the third one, I’m not so sure about. 

I didn’t want to talk about Summer League because I didn’t want to bum everyone out with what I thought of Jared McCain. I ain’t buying it. Not yet, anyway. Unfortunately, out of nowhere Mike threw the question at me, and I had to approach it as honestly and softly as I could. I wasn’t impressed at all with McCain. 

The problem here, as we’ve seen before, is when the first round pick doesn’t impress, it makes it difficult to enjoy the other stuff. Kevin Durant’s tweet aside, seeing Markelle Fultz in Summer League gave me that “uh oh” feeling. Jared McCain being unimpressive isn’t quite the disaster that Fultz ended up being, but it is kind of a bummer. 

Jared McCain Surprised Us All at Summer League

What I was trying to do with McCain is what I did with Evan Turner early in his career. I was very sure in my heart that it was quite obvious that he wasn’t going to be good, that I started convincing myself he wasn’t by finding some things he did well. The metaphor I always use for this is when your favorite band comes out with a new album, you’re very excited, you put it on and you get that sinking feeling that it isn’t any good. But you’ve been looking forward to it for so long that you convince yourself it’s good. 

I started finding little things with McCain that impressed me. “Oh well, he’s a better dribbler and passer than I thought.” “Oh look, he has good SPATIAL AWARENESS!”  All the while, deep down, my thoughts were, “This guy is small and slow, not much of a leaper or an athlete, and wait a minute… he can’t even shoot?”

Yes, it was just Summer League, but also, this is what I have to go on. If he can’t be awesome against these guys, can he now or ever be awesome against a real NBA roster? It’s possible, but I’m not giving him the benefit of the doubt (if you want that sort of thing, check out this from The Danny). 

My gut right now says that the Sixers have so many guards that we probably won’t even see McCain play very much this season, and he will most likely be part of trade at the deadline. So, no harm, no foul. And he seems like a nice, smart, fun, kid. So if he’s not playing, we can be happy with him during his short time here. 

But if we are to expect Jared McCain will ever be good for the Sixers, he’s going to have to show me quite a bit more than we saw in the Sixers’ 17 weeks in Las Vegas during Summer League. Because that feeling in my gut is usually the right one.