Tyrese Maxey Plays 47 Minutes as Jared Mccain Trade Debate Returns
Tyrese Maxey played 47 minutes on Wednesday night, and the jared mccain trade debate came back into view because the Sixers had only one guard off the bench. Philadelphia had to lean on its starters again in Game 2 against the Knicks, with Joel Embiid unavailable and the rotation running thin.
Maxey Carries the Load
Maxey did most of the backcourt work, but the burden kept growing as the game went on. He struggled to score in the fourth quarter while the Sixers shot 21% from the floor in that period, a late collapse that left the team searching for answers in real time.
Nick Nurse did not bring a guard or a wing off the bench besides Quentin Grimes, and Cam Payne could have spelled Maxey for two minutes in the second half if he had stayed healthy. Instead, the workload spread to the rest of the starting group: Paul George logged 43 minutes, while VJ Edgecombe and Kelly Oubre Jr. each played 40.
Quentin Grimes and the Frontcourt
Grimes has been the de facto sixth man in the playoffs, playing 22.4 minutes per game and averaging 7.1 points per game. That left Philadelphia with little margin behind the starters, especially once Andre Drummond and Adem Bona both wound up in foul trouble while filling in for Embiid.
One of Drummond or Bona started and the other came off the bench in Game 2, but the arrangement still forced the Sixers to patch minutes together. Dominick Barlow played late and supplied the kind of high-energy glue minutes that kept the rotation from breaking entirely.
Jared McCain's Minutes
McCain is part of why the bench discussion keeps resurfacing. He averaged 5.3 minutes and 3 points per game in the playoffs, played 15 minutes in Game 1 against the Lakers, and then played 21 minutes in three games against the Suns.
The comparison is sharp because the Sixers decided to punt at the trade deadline and do nothing to improve the team. Against a Knicks group that can go 10 deep in the conference semifinals, Philadelphia keeps asking its starters to cover the gap, and Maxey’s 47-minute night showed how narrow the margin has become.
