April 11, 2025
Bill Streicher/Imagn Images
Jared McCain's star potential was on full display prior to his season-ending knee injury.
At the end of just about every week during the 2024-25 Sixers season, we have broken down the good, the bad and the ugly of the on-court product in Friday film. Now, on the very last Friday of this trying campaign, it feels right to look back at some of the more exciting clips, trends and performances of the season. One last time this season, let's dive into the film:
Perhaps the brightest light in this Sixers season — even if it only lasted 23 games — was rookie guard Jared McCain. Prior to suffering a season-ending meniscus tear, McCain burst onto the scene with a ridiculous scoring binge in which his well-documented three-point stroke was accompanied by crafty in-between work.
McCain had a string of stellar outings before his season ended prematurely, but one stands out above the rest because of his partner in crime. On Nov. 22, the sputtering Sixers were desperate for a win without Joel Embiid. They were at risk of falling to a pesky Brooklyn Nets team before McCain teamed up with Tyrese Maxey to stage a dominant closing run:
When the Sixers found themselves trailing the Brooklyn Nets with six minutes left on Friday night, starting guards Jared McCain and Tyrese Maxey combined to take the team's next eight shot attempts -- and they all went in.
— Adam Aaronson (@SixersAdam) November 23, 2024
Would you like to see every shot from that stretch? pic.twitter.com/lSbr5gFCau
After this game, McCain and Maxey shared in a press conference which was partly illuminating and partly hilarious. Moments earlier, Guerschon Yabusele was asked about what it was like to play with two guards with such tremendous skill.
"You go over there, you set screens, you try to pop, try to make things easy for them," Yabusele said, "and you enjoy the show."
Kelly Oubre Jr.'s season appears to have been ended by a knee sprain which coincided with the Sixers' tanking efforts, but after a brief benching which forced him to recalibrate his style as a driver to tremendous success, he provided the best all-around production of his NBA career. Oubre put on an absolute clinic in starring in a role in Chicago in December, doing every single one of the little things:
Kelly Oubre Jr. put on an absolute masterclass in starring in a role during the second half yesterday:
— Adam Aaronson (@SixersAdam) December 9, 2024
- Three offensive rebounds in Q3, all leading to open Sixers 3PA (two 3PM)
- Three steals
- Momentum-shifting corner three + offensive foul drawn on next play
Full highlights: https://t.co/vQvMOZppGI pic.twitter.com/1oDdtcOE99
When the Sixers traded for Quentin Grimes in February, they hoped he would provide similar value as a role player who could fill in the gaps. Little did they know he would emerge into a dynamic three-level scorer. Grimes emerged with a 44-point game against the Golden State Warriors to begin a torrid month of March that also included a 46-point masterpiece in Houston a few weeks later. But on March 4 in Minnesota, Grimes scored 30 points against the Timberwolves in what feels like his most diverse scoring outburst:
After rewatching it, I think Quentin Grimes' 30-point night in Minnesota might have been more impressive than his 44-point game vs. GSW, just because he had to create so much on his own. I uploaded a bunch of encouraging clips to @SixersAdamClips, here's a supercut of those: pic.twitter.com/1CNc1dpsdE
— Adam Aaronson (@SixersAdam) March 6, 2025
Adem Bona may be engineered specifically to make highlight plays worthy of being included in a story like this — and there will be a sequence from the middle of the season shown later on — but he is putting his outlier tools together and looking like a quality rotation center late in his rookie season, and his excellent outing against Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks last week was quite exciting:
2:19 of Adem Bona's finest moments against the Milwaukee Bucks last night in the Sixers rookie's career night:
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) April 4, 2025
28 points (13-15 FG)
6 rebounds (3 offensive)
3 blocks
2 steals pic.twitter.com/7xXrOvr2Zw
The most enjoyable aspect of watching Bona's growth has been that the more times he makes a good play on either end of the floor, the more excitable he becomes in reaction to those plays.
MORE: Sixers mock draft roundup 1.0
Sometimes we break down individual games or plays, but sometimes we monitor trends for weeks or months as players develop their skills. Perhaps the most significant example of this during 2024-25 was Maxey's massive growth as a defensive playmaker. Once a weak link on that end of the floor because of shaky on-ball defense, suboptimal size and an ability to notch many steals or blocks, Maxey got better in every capacity as a defender in his fifth NBA campaign.
Maxey added considerable muscle prior to this season, which helped him fight through screens and hold up in one-on-one situations. But the headliner was his playmaking, where Maxey suddenly grew into a high-caliber gambler, capable of helping in the exact right spots at the exact right times:
Tyrese Maxey had a rough shooting night against the New York Knicks on Wednesday, but made a handful of standout defensive plays, including this steal and block: pic.twitter.com/Pc1JEeKx9t
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) February 28, 2025
Oubre, meanwhile, dazzled with his rim finishes all year long. While he was playing on a nightly basis prior to his knee injury, he outpaced just about every role player in the NBA in and-one conversions, with the only players leading him in that category being stars or bigs. Oubre's two-foot approach as a driver has allowed him to refine his decision-making, but he still is capable of going right at a defender at the basket and finishing through them:
The only players with more and-ones than Kelly Oubre Jr. (20) this season entering Saturday...
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) January 25, 2025
Giannis, KAT, DeRozan, Anthony Davis, Anthony Edwards, Brunson, SGA, JJJ, Jokic, Maxey, Zubac, Mobley, Tatum, Siakam, Jaylen Brown, Şengün, Durant, Sabonis, Harden, Reaves, Dončić. pic.twitter.com/3u2S8LZhZ5
Undrafted rookie and Philadelphia native Justin Edwards has been a terrific find for the Sixers; the 21-year-old has the makings of a quality two-way rotation wing for many years to come thanks to his tremendous feel for the game and combination of skill and fearlessness on the defensive end. Edwards has been battling with ankle and rib ailments for nearly two months, but had a really nice stretch in the month of March in which he was able to handle not just massive minutes but a significant offensive workload. The bulk of Edwards' value to the Sixers long-term will not stem from his on-ball scoring, but he showed down the stretch of the season that there is some juice there:
Justin Edwards in his last three games:
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) March 23, 2025
62 points
10 three-pointers
66.6 TS%
A compilation of 10 Edwards baskets during this span, from quick-trigger spot-up shooting to self-created scoring and more: pic.twitter.com/h2O1Mw2vkJ
A month ago, Edwards was asked after a Sixers practice if he could feel himself growing more comfortable when operating with the ball in his hands.
"Yeah," Edwards said. "And the game's just slowing down for me a little bit more."
MORE: What would a rotation including Cooper Flagg look like?
During a long 82-game season, players as skilled and brilliant as the ones in the NBA make tons of plays that, upon review, are wildly impressive or at least fun to look back at. A few of those...
In one of his first games as a Sixer, Jared Butler showed off the impressive basketball IQ which powers his entire game. Watch Butler on this entire play, attempting to direct traffic before taking matters into his own hands:
A fun Jared Butler play: As Paul George draws multiple defenders on a drive, Butler points to Quentin Grimes open in the corner. George doesn't see it and instead kicks the ball out to Butler, who has the ball for just a fraction of a second, swinging it to Grimes for a three. pic.twitter.com/mvw50XQIpC
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) February 16, 2025
I have tried to stick to players still on the Sixers, but this may be the last time I have a chance to write about any of the inner workings of KJ Martin's game that have always stood out. Everyone knows Martin is an absolutely elite athlete who can soar with the best of them, but he also possesses a tremendous feel for the game. I will say it one last time: players as athletic as Martin with clear smarts do not turn out to be anything other than useful rotation pieces.
KJ Martin's defenders often sag off him. Here, he takes advantage, directing Guerschon Yabusele to screen for Tyrese Maxey, then initiating a quick screen himself to free up Maxey for a wide open triple: pic.twitter.com/lXxByKOtqJ
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) December 6, 2024
Returning to Bona to close things out, this sequence from the middle of the season remains hilarious. In a Sixers win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Jan. 28, Bona swatted three shots. They came against two different players named LeBron James:
Adem Bona had three blocks on Tuesday night. All three of them came against people named LeBron James: pic.twitter.com/D6Uoa5zyq7
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) January 29, 2025
It has been a long season. At least there were some fun moments along the way, right?
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