Welcome to our Sixers player preview series, where in the weeks leading up to Media Day we will preview the upcoming 2025-26 season for each and every member of the Sixers' standard roster. For each player, we will pose two key questions about their season before making a prediction.
The pressure is on these Sixers after a miserable 24-58 campaign last season. After entering a year with championship aspirations and spending multiple months having to tank for the sake of a protected first-round pick, the Sixers have lost any and all benefit of the doubt that their signature season is finally coming.
It is safe to say there is a whole lot of work to do on the Sixers' end to prove the doubters wrong. Do they have a roster good enough to make it happen?
Up first: Jared McCain, whose outstanding rookie campaign was cut short at just 23 games when the rookie guard suffered a torn meniscus. Before he went down, McCain exhibited considerably more upside than most players drafted around the No. 16 overall pick. Even in a small sample, he did more than enough to prove he has a real chance of being the latest star to emerge in Philadelphia. What is in store for his second NBA season?
SIXERS PLAYER PREVIEWS
Jared McCain
What will McCain be capable of as a playmaker for others?
McCain has plenty of offensive gifts, which figure to be essential for the 2025-26 Sixers on a nightly basis. His mastery from beyond the arc will provide space for players like Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid. His on-ball scoring will provide some stability for the team's half-court offense. All of that will be critical. But right now, McCain is the only player on this team suited to serve as a primary ball-handler when Maxey is off the floor.
Maxey and McCain should share the floor a decent bit – more on that to come – but in a perfect world, at least one of them will be on the court at all times. Sixers head coach Nick Nurse would certainly like to ensure he always has someone on the floor capable of initiating offense and leveraging threats of self-creation and creation for teammates at the same time. Maxey and McCain are the only two sure things on that front.
So when McCain plays point guard for this team, how ball-dominant will he be? Can he play with a traditional table-setting mentality in spurts, or will Nurse encourage him to hunt his own shots as much as possible, as he has often instructed Maxey to do? In a small sample, McCain has shown an impressive ability to prioritize playmaking for others:
While McCain was able to post strong assist numbers at times during his truncated rookie campaign, the more encouraging sign for his prospects as a facilitator is the general feel for the game that he has exhibited at every level. McCain's work ethic is, by all accounts, tremendous. He studies and learns, with plenty of innate basketball IQ to go along with the preparation. Even simple plays like this that do not meet the eye at first glance are promising:
McCain will never be John Stockton. He does not need to become a "pure point guard" in his second NBA season or at any point in his career. But if he is able to naturally find the right balance between scoring and passing when Maxey is off the floor, the Sixers' overall offensive floor will be raised quite a bit.
MORE: McCain says he is 'on pace' for training camp return
How harmful will McCain's defense be?
McCain ever becoming a positive-impact defensive player in the NBA would be a major upset given his size, length and athletic deficiencies. Even Maxey had the requisite speed and length to eventually turn into a defensive playmaker. That took him five years, and it is not as if Maxey's defensive leap last season catapulted him into All-Defense consideration. McCain's defensive baseline is far lower because he does not have many tools that could lead to any sort of production on that end.
Not for a lack of trying, McCain will be a negative-impact defender next season. That is not up for debate. The question, really, is how much of a negative he will be. Will McCain be so much of a weak link that opposing offenses attack make a point to attack him and it plagues the Sixers on defense every night, or will the Sixers be able to properly insulate him, protecting McCain from ever being overexposed on that end of the floor?
The truth is that the eventual answer to this question hinges on a lot more than just McCain's individual effort. How often will he play alongside other guards? Maxey, VJ Edgecombe and Quentin Grimes are all primed for prominent rotation roles alongside McCain. Paul George was a very strong wing defender last season, but his availability for his second campaign in Philadelphia is already up in the air.
Of course, the lack of certainty about how often Embiid will be on the floor is the most significant factor here. If Embiid is playing consistently and doing so at a level similar to his peak form, the Sixers will have an elite rim protector on the back line capable of cleaning up most of his team's messes. If he is even a slightly reduced version of his best self, Embiid will be one of the better rim protectors in the NBA.
If Embiid does not play often – or, when he does, he looks as immobile as he was last season – the Sixers' interior defense will be severely lacking. Weak links on the perimeter will be even more exploitable and Nurse will have a much more difficult time trotting out smaller lineups, particularly the three-guard units that he is expected to try utilizing.
MORE: McCain, Edgecombe growing close: 'I'm excited to play with him'
Prediction
McCain and Maxey start a significant number of games together, and the results are encouraging enough to provide genuine optimism that the two can play alongside each other moving forward.
The most significant positive development of the 2024-25 Sixers season was McCain proving he had true star upside. In a nightmarish campaign, that was a saving grace. With real potential for more short-term Sixers disappointment next year – the team remains reliant on the health of injury-prone players – the most important positive development in 2025-26 could be Maxey and McCain proving they are able to coexist despite concerns about their size and defensive fit.
Even if this prediction comes true, the Sixers will have plenty of work to do for years to come in order to build a defensive infrastructure strong enough to support those two players. But among the members of the Sixers' promising young nucleus of talent, Maxey is far and away the most proven player. He is already a star-caliber NBA guard who has been a vital part of contending teams as a very young player. While the Sixers have tremendous hopes and expectations for Edgecombe, his path to stardom is not as clear as that of McCain, the vastly superior on-ball player and scorer.
The Sixers do not have to be built around Maxey and McCain specifically in five years from now. Edgecombe could easily be a better player than one or both of them by that time. But the worst-case scenario of this season from a longer-term perspective is Maxey and McCain proving to be a completely incompatible pairing. It would limit the Sixers' lineup versatility now and force them to make a significant trade later.
Ultimately, the guess here is that with their combined offensive prowess and Maxey's notable defensive growth, McCain is able to do enough in order to show that there is reason for optimism. Nobody will believe that the fit is perfect, or that Edgecombe should become less of a priority. But if a potential partnership between Maxey and McCain fully forming in the years to come feels like a real possibility in eight months from now, the Sixers should be thrilled.
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