The Philadelphia 76ers had been arguably essentially the most snakebitten workforce within the NBA. It simply obtained worse.
Rookie guard Jared McCain, a prime candidate for Rookie of the Yr honors, sustained a lateral meniscus tear in his left knee Friday and would require surgical procedure that knocks him out indefinitely, the Sixers introduced Saturday.
The precise second McCain sustained the meniscus tear is unclear. He did go away the sport in opposition to the Indiana Pacers at one level, however that was due to a fall wherein the again of his head bounced off the court docket.
Regardless, the lack of McCain is possibly the worst blow but for the Sixers, who’ve struggled to get their core triumvirate of Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Paul George on the court docket collectively. The trio has performed in solely three video games collectively to date in 2024-25, and Embiid is now coping with a sinus fracture that’s to be evaluated over the weekend. He has performed a complete of six video games all season.
The workforce holds a document of 7-16, and McCain was a big motive why that document is not even worse. The sixteenth general decide of the 2024 NBA Draft leads all rookies in factors scored whereas capturing a robust 38.3% from 3-point vary, setting quite a few milestones alongside the way in which.
McCain had been beginning at level guard with Maxey out, however was largely coming off the bench in current video games. He was nonetheless an necessary a part of the rotation, although, and changing him is not going to be straightforward, even when the workforce has gotten used to taking part in short-handed.
As for Rookie of the Yr, McCain was the odds-on favourite to take dwelling the award, which mirrored the productiveness of this season’s rookie class as a lot because the power of McCain’s play. With McCain nearly actually not taking part in sufficient video games to make a run on the award, the sector is now really large open.
Stephon Fortress of the San Antonio Spurs, Dalton Knecht of the Los Angeles Lakers and Yves Missi of the New Orleans Pelicans all loom as prospects, however many extra rookies might change into prime contenders with only one good month.
