Sixers guard Jared McCain experienced left knee soreness after last night’s loss to Indiana and underwent an MRI on Saturday, which revealed a torn meniscus, league sources tell Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Twitter link).
According to Fischer, McCain requires surgery and will be out indefinitely. Philadelphia confirmed the news in a press release (Twitter link).
The news is devastating for the 76ers, who have struggled mightily to open 2024/25 amid injuries to Joel Embiid, Paul George and Tyrese Maxey, among others. The team hoped to be in title contention, but is currently just 7-16, the No. 12 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Embiid suffered a sinus fracture on Friday as well, though it’s unclear how long he’ll be sidelined as a result of his latest injury.
The 16th overall pick of June’s draft after one college season at Duke, McCain has been arguably the most productive rookie in the NBA this fall, averaging 15.3 points, 2.4 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 25.7 minutes per game, with a .460/.383/.875 shooting line in 23 appearances. He was named the East’s Rookie of the Month for games played in October and November.
McCain also had a very hard fall on Friday vs. the Pacers, but a concussion was ultimately ruled out after multiple tests, including one today, per Kyle Neubeck and Derek Bodner of PHLY Sports (Twitter link). Obviously, that’s of little consolation now that the 20-year-old sharpshooter is out for the foreseeable future with a knee injury.
It’s unclear how Philadelphia will look to fill the void of McCain’s pace, energy and scoring, but second-year wing Ricky Council saw an uptick in minutes vs. Indiana and could receive more run going forward.
That franchise is cursed.
We really need to stop allowing the stupidity of a franchise to be passed off as curses. If the rookie McCain was supposed to be the savior of this 6ers season, then Morey needs to be fired 3 months ago.
Teams make bad choices. They aren’t cursed, they’re stupid. That’s it.
So McCain getting injured is a bad choice by the GM?
I don’t understand the correlation of the injury and your statement.
It’s not the injury to McCain, but relying on him to save them to start the season. He surprised a ton of experts and for a team with so much supposed talent and expectations, putting all that on McCain wasn’t wise to start the season
And how does that impact the meniscus injury occurring?
I get that the Sixers have been making bad decisions for years, but that’s not why McCain got hurt. The two are mutually exclusive.
Did you even read the posts you’ve responded to? No one is attributing his injury to bad management. The fact that a rookie getting injured is a significant blow to a supposed title contender is the fault of management, who built a team of notoriously injury prone players.
So drafting a good rookie is bad?
The point was – this season for the 6ers hinged on both Embiid and George to be healthy. There is no reason a rational person would have assumed that they both would play 70+ games. FULL STOP.
That was a stupid decision. If you want to say they didn’t have another choice, I would let you make that argument. But that argument would not make that choice any less stupid.
McCain has been a spark plug to a team in desperate need of one. Nobody is arguing that. But was McCain going to pull this horrendous start into a 6 seed by himself? No.
So this team is not cursed. They chose to risk this season on Embiid and PG’s ability to stay on the court while knowing the injury history of those two players.
McCain’s injury is unfortunate. It’s also not the reason the 6ers won’t be a contender. It’s also also NOT A CURSE ON THE PHILADELPHIA 76ERS!
McCain playing a full season and becoming a piece for the future has zero impact on this lost season. The lost season was actually a benefit to his development. All of you need to be less casual.
This is a case study that you dont build around 2 injury prone players as your stars. See the Clippers for reference.
Just a bad choice after a bad choice after a bad choice after a bad choice after etc etc etc. this dates to many years back starting from the MCW, Butler trades.
Trust the process of giving everyone up except Joel. Thanks Hinkie, MCW, Okafor, Noel, Saric and many others for the sacrifices you had to pay
Tank the season
Yep 6ers 2025 pick must land 1-6 or its OKC’s.
Young drafted players playing real mins. Always going to be issues. Be thankful it’s not worse.
Sixers are done. Move Embiid now ……
I agree.
A rookie playing 25 minutes a game is a problem now?
Only you see problems.
Dennis Smith Jr is the answer…but as for McCain I am really sorry to read this
McCain has been a rose among a very thorny year for the Sixers
He should be in the NBA or they could actually give Fultz a chance
It’s those extracurricular TikTok dances that weakened the knees.
Speedy recovery kid.
This!
this is becoming comical, and I’m a 76er fan
Damn wish nothing but the worst for that team but McCain was a bright spot. Hope he can heal up and get back to it asap.