December 16, 2025
Kyle Ross/Imagn Images
Frustration is brewing amongst Sixers fans as Jared McCain struggles to earn consistent minutes.
We are now 25 games into the 2025-26 Sixers season, and while the overall results have certainly been encouraging, there is still a whole lot we do not know about where this team is headed.
As always, you have questions. As always, I am happy to answer.
Let's not waste any time and dive into this week's Sixers mailbag...
From @scoobyliveofev1: I see people calling to trade Jared McCain because he’s not being used. Would you say it’s too early and he still has time to develop?
Yes, I would say both of those things. Shopping McCain, as brutal as his minutes have been of late, would be silly.
McCain is 21 years old; his return to peak form from a meniscus injury – it was one year ago on Saturday – has clearly not happened as quickly as anyone would have hoped or expected. Perhaps McCain tearing the UCL in his right thumb days before training camp did not help. There have been some clear flashes of the brilliance McCain showed during his shortened rookie season, like his 20-point outing in Brooklyn at the end of November:
Jared McCain on Friday in Brooklyn:
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) November 29, 2025
29 minutes (season-high)
20 points (season-high)
7-16 FG (season-high FGM and FGA)
4-10 3P (season-high 3PM and 3PA)
4 rebounds (season-high)
5 steals (season-high)
McCain's full highlights from the Sixers' win over the Nets: pic.twitter.com/gL3TWUGvRZ
McCain appeared to be breaking out after prolonged struggles so significant that he had a two-game stint in the G League. But he has stagnated over the last two weeks and failed to earn the considerable minutes many have been hoping him to have. The frustration has been directed at Sixers head coach Nick Nurse, who has made repeated efforts to temper expectations for McCain.
As he has shown on several occasions, McCain has enough movement ability to have strong performances. But for a player whose athleticism was already a weakness, his diminished mobility is extremely problematic on both ends of the floor right now. McCain's offensive exploits are unlikely to succeed against high-caliber defenders...
Jared McCain had three costly turnovers in the fourth quarter of the Sixers' win over the Warriors on Thursday. The first was an uncharacteristically bad pass; on the other two McCain struggled to handle intense ball pressure – the first of those against a well-timed double-team: pic.twitter.com/aWtOlZVSzV
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) December 5, 2025
...And McCain is a liability on the defensive end himself:
Jared McCain falls a step or two behind Garrison Matthews, then dies on a screen: pic.twitter.com/2VvBwE9ocE
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) December 13, 2025
Nurse has the luxury of Tyrese Maxey logging the heaviest workload of any player in the NBA, plus VJ Edgecombe and Quentin Grimes being capable of handling considerable minutes totals. That has allowed him to ensure he is never asking for too much from McCain, even if that means there are times that someone like Justin Edwards gets a few minutes that arguably would have been better off being given to McCain.
To get back to your original question: vying for a McCain trade because of this disappointing beginning to his second NBA season is out of touch. His skill has not evaporated, he is not over the hill. But the Sixers have the requisite backcourt infrastructure to slow-play his progression, which he clearly needs given that the Sixers have games to win.
MORE: Tyrese Maxey's new signature skill, and welcome to the start of NBA trade season
From @kellenpastore.bsky.social: The Sixers currently have a top-10 Defensive Rating. How did they get here from the start of the season, and what can they do to sustain good defense throughout the rest of the season?
Considering how inept the Sixers looked defensively when this season began, for them to climb into the top 10 in the NBA in defense is pretty remarkable. One of the most significant factors in the Sixers' team success in 2025-26 has been their ability to rely on three-guard lineups, and the most important defensive component there is Grimes, who has regularly guarded up against wings and other players with significant size advantages over him. If Grimes could not consistently hold up in those matchups, the Sixers would be in a lot of trouble given their shallow wing mix. But he continues to come up with important one-on-one stops against great players:
Quentin Grimes continues to show up guarding above his size one-on-one late in games: pic.twitter.com/RAFglo543D
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) December 13, 2025
Tyrese Maxey enters Friday leading all NBA players in transition possessions and points. A significant amount of Maxey's success as a transition scorer can be attributed to his stellar defensive playmaking: pic.twitter.com/NGn64iKtO7
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) December 12, 2025
Another recent standout has been Dominick Barlow, whose value extends beyond offensive rebounding. Some might call Barlow a tweener – he does not have the shooting skill of a perimeter player or the strength of a typical center – but right now, the more favorable and apt description would be that he has enough athleticism to keep up with smaller players and enough size and muscle to battle with bigger and stronger opponents. When he is out there, the Sixers can switch on ball screens with much more freedom:
Dominick Barlow had three tremendous one-on-one defensive possessions against Luka Dončić on Sunday: pic.twitter.com/T4ZC3UU8P2
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) December 8, 2025
While all of those players deserve the flowers they just received, there was one obvious turning point in the Sixers' defensive production this season: Paul George's introduction to the rotation. George has had some stellar offensive games recently, but his defensive production has been excellent and much-needed.
It is not just that George can handle a high-profile assignment. He can do so across multiple positions, and constantly communicates in a fashion that Nurse and other players rave about. It has rubbed off on many of the Sixers' younger players.
"We can take it a lot further," George said on Wednesday. "I think we're a little ways away from where we need to be but I think we're getting there. We're making steps to be a better defensive team... I like where we're at."
MORE: Sixers' shrewd two-way signings are paying off
From @SixersSpectrum: Where is Adem Bona?
Behind Andre Drummond on the depth chart – as is warranted based on their performances since the beginning of the regular season.
It is not that Bona's performances have been massively disappointing – though a larger step forward was certainly expected for the second-year center. But after a disastrous season last year, the veteran Drummond has just been better.
"I think that as a coaching staff you can only evaluate the body of work you've seen. And I was up front with him and told him that what I saw last year wasn't going to cut it," Nurse said last month. "...Bona beat him out through training camp, if Joel [Embiid] was playing he was third, and he'd have to play his way out of that, and he's done that.
"I give him credit. I think he's worked hard, I think he's in much better shape than he ever was last year. He's getting to the basketball easier than he did a year ago. He goes through these stretches where he's dominant on the defensive glass that we never really saw a year ago. So he's picked it up, so he must have sensed it, and I give him credit for that."
Bona does still offer things Drummond never will be able to. He is a considerably better mover; while Drummond has to stay close to the basket despite not being much of a rim protector, Bona is a shot-blocker and capable of defending on switches from time to time:
Back-to-back strong defensive reps from Adem Bona switching on Kevin Porter Jr. on the perimeter: pic.twitter.com/VXG7EzSL0I
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) December 6, 2025
It is far from an impossibility that, just as Drummond usurped Bona in the center hierarchy a few weeks into the season, Bona could do the same to the player who has mentored him later on. But even if the current pecking order holds through the season, Bona is a critical piece of this puzzle given how frequently Embiid misses games.
MORE: Four Sixers officially become eligible to be traded
