Rookie Jared McCain, taking inspiration from Stephen Curry, is thriving for the Sixers

On By Littum

The NBA has seen smiles like Jared McCain’s before.

Isiah Thomas and Magic Johnson had magnetic smiles that captivated and charmed throughout the 1980s. In today’s league, Anthony Edwards has a great one, but it’s usually followed by the kind of trash talk you don’t want around your mother. And then there’s Stephen Curry, who at age 36 is still a smiling assassin who can put opponents to sleep.

McCain has a smile that makes you think he’s happy to be here and enjoying every moment of his rookie season for the Philadelphia 76ers. But like all those telegenic guards, McCain’s smile hides something: a competitive streak that has him terrorizing opposing defenses, one 3-pointer at a time.

Has McCain’s run to the front in the Rookie of the Year race been surprising? Yes, because of how quickly the 20-year-old has appeared on the NBA scene. But perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised.

It’s possible that people were too focused on watching and dissecting his wildly popular TikToks and painted fingernails to properly assess his basketball acumen. Yes, McCain, like many young athletes who have grown up in the social media era, presents a different public persona than his predecessors, but he has many of the same qualities as the great NBA guards, especially his hero, Curry.

“He’s always been my favorite player in the league,” McCain said Athletics. “Steph influenced so many people, including me, in my generation. Growing up, I would shoot 3s from as far away as I could.”

McCain grew up in California at the height of Curry’s career. He was 11 and vividly remembers watching during Curry’s first championship run with the Golden State Warriors. He is one of the first of the Curry generation to reach the league, inspired by watching the Golden State guard change the game. There are significant parts of McCain’s game that remind you of the future Hall of Famer.

“I think I saw him more off the ball than on the ball,” he said. “I watched how he moved after he passed it. I watched how he’s able to sprint around the track. I think I’m in really good shape and I get my feet set quickly. So these are some things that I think I can use to get shots off.

“I know I have to be good at the rim, so I’m still working on my finishes there. But when people close in on you, you have to figure out how to create space.”

What has made the rookie so difficult to guard early in his career? He is a great shooter with a quick release and unlimited range. But he is more advanced off the dribble than expected. He possesses a quick first step and has a strong body that allows him to shoulder past a defender on his way to the basket. It compensates for the fact that he almost exclusively plays below the rim. He has a developed mid-range game and is a talented pick-and-roll player.

McCain moves without the ball at an almost expert level. He knows how to navigate and manipulate screens to get open and create a basketball advantage. He has mastered passing to a teammate and relocating for an open look from 3-point range.

We should have known that the skill set that made him a two-time Gatorade Player of the Year in California, a McDonald’s All-American, a Duke standout and a first-round pick would translate to the league. Shooting, in this post-Curry revolution era, always translates. Especially when you can catch and shoot or shoot off the dribble or off the move as well as McCain does.

He’s shown there’s a steely competitor beneath that aw-shucks smile and TikTok dances. That he’s doing all this for a version of the Philadelphia 76ers that looks like a washed-up, all-bark-no-bite Apollo Creed in his pre-fight press conference with Ivan Drago is as amazing as it is surprising. The Sixers are 3-13 on the season after losing at home Sunday night against the Los Angeles Clippers. If the season ended today, Philadelphia would have the second-highest lottery odds and they have a top-six protected pick. So if you’re a Sixers fan looking for something positive, they’re firmly in the Cooper Flagg race. Superstar center Joel Embiid’s health has been tenuous for nearly a year. All-Star forward Paul George has suffered multiple knee injuries since training camp and hasn’t played well when he’s been in uniform.

McCain has been the biggest bright spot this season for the Sixers. Right now, he has a good chance to be the league’s Rookie of the Year. He set an NBA record for most 3-pointers made in his first five career starts, with 26. He set the Sixers record for most 3-pointers through the first 15 games of his career, with 37. He set the rookie record for most consecutive games with at least three 3-pointers made, with eight straight.

McCain went seven straight games scoring at least 20 points. By contrast, the other rookies in this class have combined for 10 such games. Due in part to his teammates’ injuries, McCain has been Philadelphia’s most consistent offensive player. And regardless of how this season turns out, he and star guard Tyrese Maxey have the potential to form a potent backcourt duo.

“He’s himself,” Maxey said. “That’s what everybody likes about him. He’s not afraid to be himself off the floor, and when you have that, that’s half the battle. He’s played well from the beginning. In training camp and in the preseason . We all knew pretty early on that he could play.”


Jared McCain holds the game after a win over the Brooklyn Nets. (Bill Streicher/Imagn Images)

The 76ers front office fell in love with McCain’s shooting in the pre-draft process. But what sold director Daryl Morey on drafting him was that McCain picked up multiple facets of the game abnormally quickly. If you asked the Sixers in June if McCain would have been so crucial to their team in November, they would have laughed and told you to take it easy as possible.

“I’m sure he’s produced so much, so early,” Sixers coach Nick Nurse said. “But when you saw him in summer league, he did the little things. I thought it was pretty obvious that this kid could play.”

Still, it was easy for many to wonder if the kid who embraced the TikTok craze could play at the NBA level. Since he was a teenager, he has had to have a sense of toughness.

“I’m so used to the talk right now that it doesn’t matter what anybody says,” McCain said. “I’ve been dealing with it since high school. I hear it all the time; they call me ‘TikTok Boy’ and stuff like that.

“It’s just that I’m on a bigger stage right now. I know I work hard. I know how much I put into the game of basketball. So I’m not going to let how people feel about what I do affect my game.”

If there really was a “Steph Curry” moment for McCain, it happened a week ago against the Miami Heat, one that McCain himself didn’t perceive. He drove as a wing in transition in the first half, with teammate Kelly Oubre Jr. led the opportunity. Oubre ended up getting a relatively uncontested layup because two Heat players ran to McCain to try to deny him.

That’s the kind of gravitas McCain has gained in the last few weeks. When told about this, McCain smiled and laughed.

His other defining moment this season came against the Brooklyn Nets when he hit a 3-pointer, turned and emphatically yelled, “I’m the Rookie of the Year.”

We don’t know if the Sixers will turn this around. They have dug a huge hole and are already six games from no. 4th place in the Eastern Conference, which means home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

But we do know that McCain has been the curiosity that is quickly becoming a star, and either way, this is the win Philadelphia can take away from the season.

“It’s a great feeling to have such an impact on the team,” McCain said. “Coming to a team with Tyrese Maxey, Paul George and Joel Embiid, I just wanted to find a way to get on the floor. So it’s pretty crazy to think about.

“I tried not to set any expectations for myself. I just wanted to go in and be myself and work as hard as I could. I wanted to let the work show.”

(Top photo: Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)