December 18, 2024
Content sponsored by
Bill Streicher/Imagn Images
Jared McCain will be out for at least three months.
In the midst of an unexpectedly brutal start to a season with high expectations, the Sixers hit on their first-round draft pick Jared McCain.
But just like essentially all of the other successful first round picks the Sixers have made in the post-Process era, he won't win Rookie of the Year due to, well, more unforeseen bad luck.
In the Duke product's case, it's a knee injury that wound up requiring lateral meniscus surgery earlier this week. In his short 23-game NBA career, McCain scored 15.3 points per game and shot 46 percent from the field and 38.3 percent from beyond the arc.
We had a few questions about his knee, and figured it was a good idea to talk with an expert to see if indeed, McCain was done for the year, what his recovery might look like and if there would be any lingering issues for the 20-year-old sharpshooter.
We chatted with Dr. Dinesh Dhanaraj, an orthopedic surgeon at St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne, who offered us some insight. A note before getting started...
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and guest authors and do not reflect any official policy or position of any NBA team or a team's athletic physicians.
A lot of information about the status of McCain's knee came from the fact that the Sixers opted to have the tear repaired, in contrast to a partial meniscectomy which would require a shorter recovery.
"When you want to repair a meniscus sometimes it's a bigger tear," Dhanaraj said. "You repair it and then you wait to let it heal, and healing takes longer than just taking a piece out. It can be from 3-to-6 months. Nobody is going back faster than three months. The regular season doesn't sound likely. Is there a possibility for playoffs? Maybe."
If McCain's return is a possibility for the playoffs in April — four months from now? That might be an issue for the Sixers, as they are trying to climb out of an embarrassingly deep hole to become playoff relevant again.
If McCain does hit the floor again in the spring — the shorter side of a typical recovery from a meniscus repair — adding McCain to the rotation again would be a very tough choice for the Sixers' front office to make. The hope is that Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Paul George are healthy and vibing by then. But it's certainly possible, especially since the spry young guard is in fact so young. The Sixers would be silly not to welcome him back into the fold.
"There is more healing potential when you're younger," Dhanaraj said. "There are very much anatomical changes in the meniscus, the blood supply is more robust when you're younger. If you try and repair it when you're older there is less blood supply."
There's also a way to look at the surgery McCain successfully had this week as an investment in a healthy future for him and his all-important knee.
"Hopefully with the repair, it's a better livelihood and better long-term status for the knee than the partial meniscectomy would have been," the doctor said.
Follow Evan on Twitter: @evan_macy
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports
