As Jared McCain went through his pregame workout before the Sixers' loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday night, he made a shot that impressed the assistant coach guiding him through his work. McCain, never one to raise his voice, screamed in a tone that had never been heard from him in Philadelphia before.

"PLAY ME!," McCain shouted. "PLAY ME IN THE F*CKING GAME!"

Hours later, McCain left the arena having not logged even one second of action. While his pregame exclamation was immediately followed up by his signature smile and an accompanying laugh, it is difficult to fathom handling the sort of rapid descent that McCain has experienced over the last 13 months. The clear favorite to win Rookie of the Year before tearing his meniscus last December, McCain tore the UCL in his right thumb the day before his second season officially began. After more than two months of failing to leave any sort of imprint on games, McCain was assigned to the Delaware Blue Coats on Saturday, marking his second stint in the NBA G League.

In this week's 5 Sixers thoughts, checking in on how McCain fared in his first game back in the G League on Sunday before discussing head coach Nick Nurse's ever-changing plan at backup center and much more:

Jared McCain's brutal first game back in the G League

It is not as if poor performance leading to losses means all that much when they're Blue Coats losses, but against a level of competition that is considerably below what McCain has faced in the NBA, he put up a stinker in Indiana against the Noblesville Boom. This line is tough to look at considering how far McCain stepped down from facing the Cavaliers on Wednesday to the Boom on Sunday:

Exactly 13 months and a week ago, McCain was the favorite to win the Rookie of the Year. He had a seven-game stretch of 20-plus point games; during that run he averaged 26.1 points while shooting 50.8 percent from the field on 18.0 shot attempts per game and 45.6 percent from three-point range on 9.7 attempts per game. The Sixers were not winning games, and so it is easy now to act as if those games were small potatoes. But it was a run of scoring with very little precedent for such a young player with so little NBA experience. It was electric:

McCain's first trip to Delaware earlier this year was a two-game stint that only held him out of one Sixers game. This time around, his stint with the Blue Coats should be indefinite. There is no room for McCain in Nurse's rotation now that the Sixers are at full strength, and there will not be until McCain can prove he is a rotation-caliber player. He has not been for two months.

MORE: McCain talks about his first stint in Delaware

A 50-point game for Johni Broome

Speaking of the Blue Coats, that is where Sixers rookie Johni Broome, the No. 35 overall pick in June, has spent the last few weeks. With their standard roster at full health and two additional reliable frontcourt pieces on two-way contracts, the Sixers decided Broome would be better off playing big minutes in the G League than riding an NBA bench. He has predictably been very good down there, and as the Sixers were falling to Cleveland on Friday, Broome was torching the Atlanta Hawks' G League affiliate to the tune of 50 points and 17 rebounds:

Sixers President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey asserted in July that Broome would spent time in Delaware as a rookie and expressed optimism that by the end of his first season or the beginning of his second season he would be a viable rotation option. Morey pushed back against the notion that the clock is ticking faster for Broome than most rookies because he is spending all of it as a 23-year-old.

In any case, it is difficult to argue that playing extended runs on a team in the G League for weeks has been more productive for Broome than any amount of learning he can do during NBA games he does not get to play in. One of the adverse impacts of the Sixers' lack of blowouts in either direction this season is that Nurse has rarely been able to empty his bench, not only forcing the team's best players to take on more significant workloads but also preventing him from getting looks at young players like Broome.

MORE: How Sixers identified and landed Broome after a multi-year process

The revolving door at backup center

For well over a year, veteran Andre Drummond has taken young Adem Bona under his wing. He constantly tells Bona "don't think about it" during games, imploring the youngster to focus on the next play and trust his instincts when he is on the floor. Now, Drummond and Bona find themselves in an unusual dynamic. When Joel Embiid is active and starting, Nurse will begin a game with only one of those reserve centers in his rotation. But if a player struggles or appears to be in a bad matchup, he will not hesitate to make a switch.

"I think we want them to be ready, but it's not as easy as, 'Why can't they just be ready?' It's just not that easy," Nurse said after the team's practice on Thursday. "I think there is a lot of ups and downs with that... I think we've got to do it by feel. But they're not alone in that. I think that's what we're doing almost every night as coaches. We're trying to figure out – the first time we always talk about in a timeout is who should be in, who do we need, who haven't we seen enough, who do we [want to] see more of? We're always, every night, trying to figure out which guy fits that moment of the game. It's really moment-to-moment and that's just kind of the way it is."

When Embiid is not available, Nurse said, his strategy is to start Drummond over Bona because most teams get smaller when they go to their backup centers, and Drummond is a much studier five than Bona. At times during games featuring Embiid, it feels as if Nurse equally weighs matchups and recent play with his backup center minutes. If Bona or Drummond is in the midst of a strong stretch of play, he will let it ride in a matchup that might feel like it is suited better for the other one. He rides the hot hand... until it gets cold. But generally, he wants Bona out there against faster teams and Drummond out there against stronger ones.

"It is probably more matchup-based," Nurse said. "Or, let's say we have a game like in Toronto where we say, 'Bona kind of seems to be the hot hand and a better fit [against] Toronto,' so we go with him a little bit more the next night or whatever. And it is a little matchup-driven."

How does one manage never knowing if or when they will be used throughout a 48-minute game?

"You've just got to come into the game staying ready," Bona said. "Also, you never know, I might be guarding the four, so I just study both positions, who are the possibilities of [players I might be] guarding during the game. Staying ready, hearing the scouts, understanding the possibility that you might have to play a little bit out of what you usually do."

Bona acknowledged that, because he is so close with Drummond, the situation is easier to navigate. There is no jealousy, just support.

"That definitely helps. Sometimes I get subbed out for Drum and he's dapping me up, just like in soccer when you sub a player you do the double high five thing," Bona said. "He's obviously – he always supports me whenever I'm on the floor. When he's on the floor, I also do my best to support him... Having someone like that, [it's] making it easier for you to step into the role, and you're never worried about if the other person is pleased or anything. So it just really comforts you."

Is it ever difficult to enter a game in the first half and avoid wondering if your next mistake will cost you the chance to play in the second half? Not according to the 22-year-old. 

"I never worry about that, because I know my coach is going to do what's best for the team," Bona said. "I don't think I'm going to play a certain type of way to please coach so I stay on the floor. I just go out there and give my all out effort all the time."

Identifying another potential trade target

As McCain looks less and less likely to help the Sixers win games in 2025-26, the idea of the team bolstering its guard depth behind Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe and Quentin Grimes could become more viable. The ideal fit would be someone who can play with or without the ball, keeps up with the group's defensive versatility and, most importantly, can guard up so Nurse can lead even harder into three-guard lineups when matchups call for it.

One player who fits this bill perfectly if he becomes available: Chicago Bulls guard Ayo Dosunmu, who turned 26 years old on Saturday and will be an unrestricted free agent next season. Dosunmu stands at 6-foot-4 and 200 pounds, but has spent years manning wing assignments in Bulls lineups often including three or four guards at a time. Dosunmu is tenacious at the point of attack and can be another high-caliber option for the Sixers against the Eastern Conference's best guards. His three-point shooting has experienced wild year-to-year variance over the last three seasons, but this season is making a whopping 45.0 percent of his triples on4.1 attempts per game.

Dosunmu, who averages 26.1 minutes per game for Chicago, is a hometown kid and represents a rare organizational victory as a quality rotation piece drafted in the second round. He would not come at a light cost. But Josh Giddey is firmly entrenched as Chicago's franchise cornerstone, Coby White remains in place and this is a team with serious needs elsewhere. At some point, Chicago using its guard depth to fill holes elsewhere and create more roster balance should be considered.

Since Dosunmu only makes about $7.5 million this season, the Sixers matching salary in a deal should be fairly easy, depending on what sort of return Chicago covets – and that could hinge on not just their record at the time of the deadline, but other moves available to them.

Something worth noting: Grimes became trade-eligible on Thursday, and it has been written many times here that any deal involving Grimes should be considered a massive longshot. He has veto power via the $8.3 million qualifying offer he accepted on Oct. 1, and since his Full Bird rights would not travel via trade, it would be a financially reckless decision for him to approve most trades. But Chicago might be the team Grimes would be most likely to waive his no-trade for – not only because he could play on the ball a ton, but also because the Bulls, currently projected to have about $65 million in cap space this summer, could signal to Grimes that they are willing to use a chunk of that money to re-sign him on the sort of long-term deal he coveted but did not receive from the Sixers last summer.

How might the tanking race impact the Sixers?

There is not much to be gleaned from strength of schedule numbers when NBA slates come out in August; teams have the same collections of opponents as their conference cohorts outside of very small variations. But once the season has hit its stride, it becomes clear which teams are elite and which ones are hunting for the best possible odds in the NBA Draft Lottery (last season, the Sixers expected to be the former and ended up turning into the latter).

Tanking efforts have become less and less subtle; teams are far more brazen holding key players out these days. For teams like the Sixers that plan on hunting for every possible win to earn a top-six seed and avoid the Play-In Tournament – or even a top-four seed and home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs – it is incredibly advantageous to have plenty of games against those teams in the home stretch of the season as tanks are in full effect.

So, who are the best teams to play near the end of the 2025-26 campaign? Based on the current lottery standings and public knowledge of different teams' directions in the months ahead, there seem to be eight teams that are somewhere from locks to good bets to be tanking:

• Indiana Pacers

• Washington Wizards

• Sacramento Kings

• Brooklyn Nets

• Utah Jazz

• Charlotte Hornets

• Dallas Mavericks

• Memphis Grizzlies

So, how do the Sixers and the many teams in their orbit in the Eastern Conference stack up in terms of games against those eight opponents? The totals are from March 1 through the end of the regular season:

It looks like the Sixers have a pretty strong draw, with two games in March against a Jazz team desperate to keep its protected first-round pick serving as the best example of their luck. All of this is a ways away, but the race for favorable playoff seeding in the Eastern Conference is a full-season marathon.

MORE: Partnership of Paul George, VJ Edgecombe could unlock best version of Sixers