On the second leg of a back-to-back, the Philadelphia 76ers eventually lost steam and lost a close contest to the visiting Detroit Pistons, falling to 6-4 on the season. With Joel Embiid out due to scheduled rest, the team’s main gunners just could not get enough buckets to lead them to victory, with Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe combining to drain just 12 of their 33 attempts from the field.
However, the bigger storyline for this game — at least for 76ers fans — is the fact that Jared McCain suited up for this one, albeit barely. The coaching staff deemed it best to reserve him for the second night of their back-to-back set, which was sensible. Unfortunately, he sniffed the court for just under nine minutes of gameplay.
To make matters more perplexing, Nick Nurse called Eric Gordon’s number ahead of his. While the 18-year veteran ended up playing just six minutes, that decision was decried by a lot of fans — and rightfully so.
After all, that bizarre choice could signal that something isn’t quite right for the young guard.
76ers may have just hinted that Jared McCain is not yet ready for real rotation minutes
Just like in his season debut, McCain ended up being scoreless, missing all of his three shots. But having said that, this degree of rusty play from McCain is to be expected. After all, he missed almost an entire calendar year rehabbing from his torn meniscus and a thumb injury.
However, if the coaching staff is not yet ready to give him considerable court time, even playing Gordon ahead of him, then that could mean that McCain is not yet as prepared as fans think when it comes ot handling the minutes he was expected to be earmarked for.
For now, the 76ers have more than sufficient ammo to wait for McCain to get his mojo back, but if he is really ready to go and absorb those minutes, the coaching staff has to commit to him to see the court more often than he has, lest there is somehting fishy going on with respect to his wind-up.
Hopefully, this is a mere overreaction, because there is simply no way that a 36-year-old Eric Gordon, who should already be out of the league, gets on the hardwood first before Jared McCain, whom the 76ers strongly believe to be a part of their nucleus moving forward.