April 13, 2025
Kyle Ross/Imagn Images
Where do the Sixers need Jared McCain to make a leap in his second NBA season?
Folks, the final day of the 2024-25 Sixers season has finally arrived. This will be news to nobody: it has not gone as planned! The Sixers hoped they would return to being genuine championship contenders with a revamped roster, instead their season devolved into a long tank race that could very well net them no reward.
The team's offseason has been scrutinized intensely during the regular season, as the team committed over $400 million in new money to Joel Embiid and Paul George in a pair of moves which very quickly appeared to be disastrous. But there were some successes, and perhaps the most significant one will be the team's performance in the 2024 NBA Draft. With the No. 16 overall pick, the team selected Jared McCain, who quickly emerged as the frontrunner for the NBA Rookie of the Year Award before suffering a season-ending injury. But they also grabbed Adem Bona at No. 41; the UCLA product profiles as the team's backup center of the future. On top of that, the Sixers signed undrafted hometown kid Justin Edwards to a two-way contract and watched him blossom into a quality, reliable wing who earned a standard deal.
Of course, none of those players are perfect prospects or total locks to maximize their potential. In the final Sunday stats of the season, let's dive into some areas in which the Sixers' 2024 rookie class need to improve moving forward:
The number of Jared McCain's 23 appearances in which he did not record a steal.
From the outset, Sixers head coach Nick Nurse was confident that McCain had enough offensive skill to hang in the NBA. McCain is an elite shooter who quickly displayed that he could create shots for himself off the dribble despite not having tremendous burst. Understandably, Nurse had concerns about how McCain would hold up on the defensive end. Not only does he come with some size and athletic concerns — McCain is the size of a point guard with short arms, but at that point was only going to be used as an off-ball player, and he does not have any sort of outlier speed — but being able to grasp the intricacies of an NBA defense while facing NBA offenses is incredibly challenging.
Rookies in the NBA are almost never good defenders, particularly at the guard position, and McCain was no exception. He is exploitable despite good effort and what turned out to be an excellent mind for the game just because of those physical limitations. Long-term, what is the best case scenario for McCain as a defender? One might suggest he could be on the same arc as Tyrese Maxey, but Maxey has far better foot speed in addition to a significantly longer wingspan — and Maxey did not become a helpful defensive player on a consistent basis until this season, his fifth in the NBA.
It is not that McCain needs to become the Sixers' defensive ace, or even a good defender. But he profiles as a clear negative on the ball, and in order to make up for that his feel must prove to be off the charts (early indications are positive in this department) and contribute some defensive playmaking. Maxey made a huge leap in that regard this season in part to great instincts and strong scheming, but he was aided by some physical tools that McCain just doesn't have.
These concerns for McCain are far more pronounced because the Sixers are hoping he can fit alongside Maxey in the backcourt for many years to come and even this improved version of Maxey remains limited.
MORE: Why Sixers spent 2024-25 teaching bigs to pass
The number of NBA players with at least 500 minutes in the 2024-25 regular season with more goaltending violations per minute than Adem Bona.
Admittedly, blocking shots on the way down is not at the top of the list when it comes for areas in which Bona needs to improve after a rookie season which is ending with a strong final few weeks. But in just 872 minutes, Bona is fourth in the entire NBA in goaltending violations, and no player has committed more of them on a per-minute basis. It is something that should be patched up:
No NBA player with at least 500 minutes played in 2024-25 has been whistled for goaltending more times per minute than Adem Bona, who is fourth in the NBA in total goaltending violations. pic.twitter.com/sQ5x5B4EZZ
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) April 12, 2025
Otherwise, the biggest keys for Bona will remain rim protection and cutting down on his exorbitant foul rates. Bona has made significant strides in both respects later in the season — particularly on the latter front, where he has gone from a safe bet to be in foul trouble during any game in which he receives heavy minutes to merely having normally high foul totals.
Bona said after the Sixers' penultimate game on Friday that the home stretch of the season has been a significant aid for his development as he heads into his sophomore campaign. He believes this experiences will help him in 2025-26 — no matter what his role actually looks like when that time comes, with Joel Embiid's uncertainty looming over every conversation about next year's Sixers.
"Obviously, the game keeps evolving, so I have to adapt, I have to get better," Bona said. "I have to get better on other things that are going to help the team. The big guy's coming back soon. My role is not going to be what it is now, so I have to adapt to that. The offseason is not just going to be about what I'm doing right now, it's going to be more other things I can contribute to help those guys on the floor and also help me."
Justin Edwards' defensive rebounding percentage, far below the league average of 15.0 percent.
Nurse often talks about the importance of guards and wings helping out their bigger teammates on the boards, particularly in smaller lineups that the team has often used in recent years. Edwards impressed in nearly every facet of his game as a rookie, from his obvious smarts to his steady defense and quick trigger on spot-up threes. Edwards made a massive impression as a rookie, has a huge fan in Nurse behind him and has a very real chance of being part of the Sixers' regular rotation next season. But if there is any area in which he did not do a ton to write home about, it is his rebounding.
To be fair, this is nitpicking a player who obliterated expectations as an undrafted two-way signing and quickly emerged as a quality wing. Edwards not becoming a particularly good rebounder will not doom his chances of sticking in the NBA, nor will it get much publicity. But part of his long-term appeal is that he has a terrific frame for a wing; those players often end up logging plenty of minutes at power forward where their jobs on the glass are a bit more important. It is not a red flag whatsoever, more a note on something that will be worth monitoring next season and evaluating more seriously much later on.
MORE: Edwards learns from chance to defend NBA stars as a rookie
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