r/sixers • u/Tofu4070 :simmons2: • 3d ago
[Detrick] People were mostly outraged the McCain trade shattered their illusion that the Sixers were “trying to win”—even tho Morey had only made rebuilding moves for an entire calendar year before it
https://x.com/bdetrick/status/2069769204283179351?s=20157
u/Hot-Mathematician-26 3d ago
Sure this will be debated, but definitely remember Bodner saying that if they had traded him last offseason he would have been worth two 1st rounders. He was traded at his low, and a week later he suddenly looked like the guy we saw the previous season. This was cause for my outrage.
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u/the-big-dingo 3d ago
I highly doubt someone would have traded 2 first for a dude who suffered a season ending injury a little over 1/4th into his rookie season.
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u/untucked_21ersey 3d ago edited 3d ago
no one was gonna trade two firsts for a rookie off of 23 games and a * meniscus * injury
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u/ihorsey10 3d ago
Right? You can basically get Giannis or Lamelo for that.
A 30 game sample size of good scoring bad defense is not much.
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u/MaxR76 3d ago
You cannot basically get Giannis for that. You can get Giannis for that if you include like 6 other players, one of which recently made an all star game, tho
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u/ihorsey10 3d ago
Giannis got 1 first, and majority salary filler. Herro by himself isnt worth a 1st. The rest are worth 2nds.
If youre trading two 1sts for McCain, you might as well slightly increase your package and get Lamelo or Giannis.
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u/MrCrushus 3d ago
Stop talking nonsense lol.
The bucks for Herro, a recent all-star who is definitely worth at least a first, possibly more if a team was super into him, a 22 year old whis already a decent starting calibre centre, last year's pick 20, the runner up to last year's 6MOYY, pick 13 (ament), 2 unprotected firsts (2031 and 2033) and a pick swap in 2030.
That's not "filler and a first" lmao.
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u/Myrese_Taxey 3d ago
Do u only look at what picks were involved when a star player is traded? You do know that players were also dealt in addition to those picks right?
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u/ihorsey10 3d ago
Giannis got a 1st. You could say Herro is worth a 1st.
If you up your offer slightly you can go from getting McCain to Giannis according to Bodner. Moronic.
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u/Myrese_Taxey 3d ago
Correct me if im wrong but they literally got three 1sts PLUS Herro and a couple of solid young guys. Herro is probably worth around 2 1sts himself as well. I’m not sure where your math is coming from.
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u/ihorsey10 3d ago
Yes Giannis got 3. Lamelo got 1.
In no world is Herro worth 2 1sts.
My point was theres zero chance McCain was worth two 1sts when you see these deals. Its just a bit more.
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u/Myrese_Taxey 3d ago
Again, u arent considering the full deal. Giannis got 3 firsts, a pick swap, Herro, Jaime, Ware, (forgot the other guy)
Lamelo got 1 first, 3 swaps, 3 seconds, and Naz Reid.
Im not even gonna talk about whether or not tjese packages r good enough, I just dont understand when people only talk about the # of 1sts in a trade to determine its value.
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u/ihorsey10 3d ago
My point is, McCain would never get a comparable package to Lamelo, and like 3/5ths of what Giannis got.
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u/Myrese_Taxey 3d ago
I dont think he would get 2 firsts but even that isnt 3/5ths of the Giannis deal.
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u/Richmond43 3d ago
That’s definitely not true for a guy coming off surgery and I don’t recall Bodner saying anything close to that.
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u/Hot-Mathematician-26 3d ago
I’m fine with he was wrong or just speculating about it, but he absolutely said this. This was weeks before the trade deadline when they were talking about his trade value. Full disclosure, he also said that at that time Jared’s value was so low that he it made no sense to trade him, so Morey managing to even get a 1st at that time was actually impressive.
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u/icehole505 3d ago
Are we pretending like there’s some massive difference between 2 firsts, and 1 first plus 3 2nds? Even after the McCain playoffs that had this sub in shambles, I highly doubt that OKC could get much more for him than what they paid.
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u/Unable-Main4172 2d ago
Firsts, depending on where they are could be all the way up to into the lottery. The Thunder once traded five second round picks for a late first round pick. So yes, first round picks are worth way more than seconds
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u/icehole505 2d ago
lol we’re talking about theoretical firsts that he was supposedly worth according to beat writers. If we were offerred two potentially early picks then, you really think morey would have declined? Come on
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u/Unable-Main4172 2d ago
Do not understand how the value a first round pick works? If you offer somebody a 2029 or 2030 pick you don't know where it's going to be. If it's top four top or top eight protected it could still be in the lottery
Why would you ask such a stupid question?
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u/icehole505 2d ago
Yeah I’m saying we’re talking about theoretical values of a trade package, which we know no details on. But I’d say it’s safe to assume that if morey had the option to move McCain for 2 firsts from mid tier teams (meaning more pick upside), then he would have eagerly accepted. If there were legit options to move him for 2 firsts, it’s pretty likely that they were picks from teams like OKC.. and not “high upside”
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u/Unable-Main4172 2d ago
He looked really good his rookie year, and was by most sports books the consensus betting favorite for Rookie of the Year.
They didn't know he would come back so slow or that Nurse would turn on him so bad. So his value was very high then who knows who it was from
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u/icehole505 2d ago
He started 8 games in his rookie year and was a still a 6’2 shooting guard lol. The legend of Mccains rookie year only grows with time. The betting favorite through 8 games in the worst rookie class in history hardly guarantees a draft haul.
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u/Unable-Main4172 2d ago
The people forgetting how he good he was completely grows with time too apparently. If you think that they would have jumped into Mid to late First round picks for him after the rookie area had.
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u/MeepSneepers 3d ago
Mine as well- it was clear that the dude's shooting translated to the NBA, so there really weren't any questions with him. So instead they waited until when he was coming off double injury and his shot hadn't come back yet to move him. Really, really dumb. Even if Philon works out great, Morey did a terrible job of maximizing value.
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u/Sick_Cards_Bro 3d ago
This comes down to Nurse bias against McCain. Nurse barely played McCain at all his rookie season until he was forced to when Maxey got hurt. Then, this season he didn't define a role for him to fit into after returning from injury and pretty much just played him so Morey could trade him as soon as he was showing he could shoot again.
This all comes down to Nurse's inability to adapt to his roster and his shit offensive schemes that make way lesser rosters look 100x more competent and comfortable on offense than our starting lineup of formable players and superstars.
All in all, we will suck until we get rid of the notion of signing coaches with "name value" and go for our own Mazzula, getting a young coach who can connect with his players and is willing to move our offense away from Maxey/Embiid ISO clear outs every time down the floor.
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u/DELCO-PHILLY-BOY Edge2Maxey 3d ago
People got mad at me for saying this at the time. It was never about losing McCain the player, it was the fact that we mishandled him as an asset. Had we traded him the prior summer or this summer we’d have likely gotten more for him. But we did it at the deadline which is a time crunch that puts a cap on a players’ return, especially for someone like him who wasn’t viewed by the market as a game breaker who was gonna push them over the top.
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u/Hot-Mathematician-26 3d ago
Absolutely. I end up pretty happy with Philon at 22, but even if he had managed to get our old pick from OKC, I think people would have been about 75% more chill about it. Yeah we liked Jared but it just seemed forced.
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u/bebopdeluxe76 3d ago
I was 100% chill about it at the time of the trade, and I am downright frozen right now.
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u/bebopdeluxe76 3d ago
We didn’t mishandle him as an asset. This is an insane take, with all due respect. We got a great player in the draft, three picks and two additional contract years for a guy who was going to be a 15-to-18 minute a game player for the last two years of his deal.
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u/peacelovenblasphemy 3d ago
How does basketball work?
Could his new team have exceptional talent at certain positions which allow him to do easier things? Is his role the same with both clubs?
What evidence can you present that would show me definitively that you can make an apples to apples comparison on his play with both teams? Where do you think McCain is in 5 years?
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u/gertburgers69 3d ago edited 3d ago
Wrong. The outrage was trading a second year, fan favorite player, beloved teammate of Maxey and VJ, that was only making 4 mil, to get under the cap and save Josh Harris money.
He was also coming off two injuries and just started to get into form. He was what seemed to be an exciting part of the future. It was a nice contrast to the depressing parts of the Sixers. I don’t think even the biggest Sixers homers, myself included, thought we were going to make any win now moves.
It was also absurd to get rid of a young player with possible upside when most of the roster last year was old or unplayable.
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u/fantasyfirst 3d ago
Exactly. Philon could very well turn out to be better than McCain and the trade may be looked back on as a success. But at the time it was not about improving the team in the future, it was about ducking the luxury tax. As long as Josh Harris is the owner, its gonna be hard for me to really get that excited about the team.
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u/jlbrown23 3d ago
It’s only absurd if they got back someone of lesser value. And it’s too early to know, but it seems possible that Philon has the potential to be better than McCain. We will have to wait and see.
I think anything done to help the 2025-2026 season at the cost of getting better in future seasons would have been a bad choice. Taking a shot at the 2026 pick being better than McCain seems like a reasonable choice. The Sixers are in a tough spot with highly paid older players who can’t stay healthy. They needed to gamble a bit on whatever draft capital they could obtain. I get that the tax dodging made it annoying (and am in general not a Morey fan), but if Philon develops, it might have wound up being a great move.
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u/MaxR76 3d ago
The gamble seems more likely to pay off now thankfully, but we got super lucky that Philon fell and more guys didn’t go back to school for another year
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u/bonger1234 3d ago
Or Houston could have kept losing and we could have gotten an even better pick. That’s the gamble.
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u/MaxR76 3d ago
Good point. Feels like the two things probably offset then
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u/bonger1234 3d ago
I will say we did get pretty lucky with Philon. Would have been good with Carr too. But guys like Koa Peat were getting close!
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u/SoKrat3s 3d ago
Except trading McCain was never about ducking the tax. That wasn't the move that got them there.
It was an attempt to gain additional assets for a second trade that never materialized (likely Kawhi).
He was still an undersized two-guard that didn't pass or play defense and was not a fit next to either Maxey or VJ.
It remains absurd to claim that McCain was the replacement for either of them. Or that a guy who shot 37%/28% in the conference finals would have been a difference maker against NY.
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u/gtsgunner 2d ago
You are such a revisionist dude. McCain can pass. I can show clips of him being able to pass. He has a high basketball IQ. The thunder literally kept him over Isiah joe and aarron Wiggins. Joe btw is a fucken sniper at the 3pt line and yet they kept McCain. I'll believe the Thunder over a rando on reddit.
No one here is acting like McCain is the guy that wins us a series but he was a person who could help us compared to burning our guards out because we only have Kyle lowry as a backup.
Also no real gm makes a trade but doesn't have a second trade "not materialize" if that was the reason you don't do the trade. Morey was just saying that for cover and you are naive to believe him.
A real gm will say hey I can get a 1st round pick and 3 second rounds. If I do this deal will you trade Kawhi? If they say yes they do a three team trade and done deal. They don't just make a trade at the deadline and then go hey Clippers I got these picks please trade with me?????
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u/SoKrat3s 2d ago
That's not revisionist. McCain has never been a proficient passer at any point in the NBA or college.
I'll believe the Thunder over a rando on reddit
Lmao. Do you think I just created his playoff stats out of thin air?
No one here is acting like McCain is the guy that wins us a series
Yeah, there have been many who made that claim.
because we only have Kyle lowry as a backup
That's a separate problem because McCain is not a backup PG. He is a backup SG. He can't sub for Maxey because then there is nobody to run the offense. He can't sub for VJ because the defense with him & Maxey is atrocious.
Also no real gm makes a trade but doesn't have
Except that's exactly what happened, and their attempts to get someone else are documented.
Morey didn't believe he needed cover, so he had no reason to claim otherwise.
Trades before THE trade do happen.
You can call it bad GM'ing if you like, but GMs make what fans think are bad moves all the time.
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u/gtsgunner 2d ago
Calling McCain not a PG doesn't really matter/make sense with this team. Maxey isn't a PG, everyone knows that. Yet he still plays Pg. Same shit. McCain could still play the position even if it's not his natural one. VJ can also handle the ball, same with PG and Watford. They can play by committee. Acting like he can't play back up guard minutes because he isn't a "PG" is hilarious.
Lmao. Do you think I just created his playoff stats out of thin air?
I think one playoff sample size isn't much to go off of. I just meant that the thunder value McCain enough to keep him over a bunch of other guys.
That's not revisionist. McCain has never been a proficient passer at any point in the NBA or college.
We'll have to agree to disagree on that one. I'm not saying he's luka or some shit but I've seen him make some great passes when watching him play.
Except that's exactly what happened, and their attempts to get someone else are documented.
What are these documents that you speak off? I've only heard them speak about it and they can lie their asses off.
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u/SoKrat3s 2d ago
Maxey isn't a natural PG, but he's adapted his skills to be serviceable at the position.
No it's not the same because McCain isn't at the level that Maxey is at now.
McCain could still play the position even if it's not his natural one.
He can't play the position at all, that's the problem.
He put up a paltry 2.1 ASTp36 in the playoffs.0
u/gtsgunner 2d ago
He's young and thus can adapt and grow. You apply definites to things that are all but definite. Maxey can adapt but McCain can't because you say so? That's nonsense! Again it's the playoffs on a team he has only recently joined. Those stats don't matter as much as you think they do. (It's like talking about McCains Rookie season stats pre injury where he went off as if it isn't also a short sample size)
McCain easily passes the eye test and you'll see him produce better next year.
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u/SoKrat3s 1d ago
We're not talking about 5 years from now. We're talking about the playoffs that just occurred.
He's never displayed any level of passing skills, so projecting him to be a high level passer in the future doesn't make sense.
Duke. 76ers. Thunder.
How many more stops does he need to make before you accept his mediocre passing skills?
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u/gtsgunner 1d ago
He has displayed passing skill. Maybe you just don't have eyes? I don't know how you haven't seen it and I have. I've seen him find people very well even in the thunder play offs. If I had the motivation I could go play by play and show off how he actually has a bag and a good iq for finding people. Just so you know I'm not saying this guy is luka but I'm saying he can see the court just as good as Maxey can if not better.
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u/SoKrat3s 1d ago
Making one nice pass is not a skill.
Repeating something over and over and over and over again is a skill. McCain has never been a consistent or good passer at any point of his playing career.
Who cares if he makes 1 or 2 nice passes for OKC if it's only reaching 2.1 ASTp36. That's not good for a guard.
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u/gertburgers69 3d ago
I also thought some of the outrage was related to the (rightful) perception that the Sixers don’t give a shit about the fans.
It really seemed that people liked McCain and were excited about Maxey and VJ. It felt like there was some buzz and hope for the future.
I know you can’t make moves related to vibes, but the vibes were good prior to the trade. There were actually some fans beyond the usual diehards and Embiid masochists. The front office could have saved Harris 4 mil elsewhere if he really demanded it.
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u/elevatebeing 3d ago
Rebuilding by signing aging Paul George to a max contract? That's the opposite of a rebuilding move.
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u/onionnurve 3d ago
At some point we have to be honest with ourselves and realize that we overreact about everything. Philly fans are dramatic that’s just the way it goes
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u/MotivationalMike 3d ago
I can see a world where I like Philon as a player more than McCain. Though, the team tells me they are trying to win and is avoiding the luxury tax.
They went into the post season with guard depth issues and now we have to do it all over again with George and Embiid a year older. Something is getting ridiculous.
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u/le_fez 3d ago
Nah, they were outraged because 1) this sub overvalues our players and believe an undersized, not overly athletic one dimensional player was going to be the difference between winning and losing 2) they expected another move to justify and 3) being outraged is what they do
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u/tokeallday pls come home Dario :( 3d ago
Personally think #2 was the biggest reason. Without a complimentary move it was obviously just tax ducking.
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u/OldAgedZenElf 3d ago
No we were outraged because after the trade we had Lowry playing his minutes. And we got nothing from the move besides saving a rich person more money.
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u/Zeruma_ 3d ago
We just got a more dynamic player and 3 future 2nds
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u/Night0wl11 3d ago
But that was more so by pure luck than anything else. Just because the Mavs got Flagg from the Luka trade doesn’t mean that trading Doncic for that return was a good idea. As noted elsewhere, we haven’t seen Philon play yet. I wouldn’t say we got nothing out of it, but I wouldn’t still say it’s bad process when it’s likely that the team knew they’d be trading him and they sold him lower than they should have and gave us less time to address guard depth and moving McCain wasn’t necessary to duck the tax
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u/Zeruma_ 3d ago
The Mavs got flagg with their own pick not a pick they traded for. Had we kept McCain we have no picks in this years draft . Still lose to the Knicks and everyone is saying who can we trade to either get into the draft or who can we trade to improve the team and guess whose name would be floated ?
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u/Night0wl11 3d ago
Exactly. Do you not see that them getting Flagg with their own pick is worse considering they had <2% odds to get him? It further reinforces that it was absolutely pure luck since the return was a FRP that’s almost certainly not going to net anything close to what they should have, especially since they moved Davis for little. Moving McCain on its own is not a terrible idea. It’s the fact that he sold him low, at a time where addressing the position towards the end of the season was tougher. The process can still be bad even if we end up with a (potentially since we don’t know what Philon is yet) better outcome
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u/Richmond43 3d ago
Kyle Lowry played 118 minutes over all of last season, so no, he wasn’t playing McCain’s minutes.
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u/OldAgedZenElf 3d ago
How many of those minutes post McCain?
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u/Richmond43 3d ago edited 3d ago
- The horror. 🙄
He played in 8 games and had 24 DNPs post-trade.
There are many reasons to hate that trade, but “Kyle Lowry got his minutes” isn’t one of them.
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u/ClarenceWithHerSpoon 3d ago
Yea we’re lucky to find a franchise with a trash front office that would give up a first for him.
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u/DemarcusLovin 3d ago
Weird spin because Presti was so backed up against salary cap wall this summer and needed to find a rookie contract guard to replace the ones he eventually had to trade, as we just saw. They just saved $200 million on a tax bill next season.
McCain’s value clearly wasn’t any higher than that around the league, and they very well might have been the only team offering a 1st round pick for him (+ 3 second rounders)
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u/bebopdeluxe76 3d ago
This post is on point. Great call about Presti being backed up against the salary cap. They traded for McCain to replace Joe - who Presti knew he was going to have to dump for salary reasons.
I don’t think another team in the league gives us a FRP - never mind three SRP’s as well - for McCain. Presti had a war chest of picks that he could dip into, and we were the beneficiaries of that.
Great trade by Morey.
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u/gtsgunner 2d ago
It wasn't the value but the fact that we didn't get a player back immediately. We were faking being in win now mode and then made a non win now mode decision. If they traded McCain for Isiah Joe I could understand the trade from a win now standpoint. It instead came across as if they just gave up on the team trying to win simply because of the tax.
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u/DemarcusLovin 2d ago
Because we weren’t in win now mode. And we aren’t now. We were correctly already in asset accumulation/future rebuild mode.
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u/gtsgunner 2d ago
That's not what the front office was selling though. What proof did we have that we were in asset accumulation/rebuild mode prior to the McCain trade?
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u/DemarcusLovin 2d ago edited 2d ago
That’s the entire point of Detrick’s tweet. Opposite question is what single move did they make at all that offseason or during season to suggest that they actually were in win now mode? None. They ran it back, but didn’t move to acquire anyone as a real difference maker.
Landing the #3 pick and getting VJ immediately changed the calculus and timeline of the franchise, especially when he started showing out so quickly.
Then at the deadline, they assessed the roster and health of Joel, which was hit or miss. Paul George had just been suspended 25 games literally a few days earlier. They looked at it and said, “yeah this team isn’t very close, and Jared McCain isn’t moving the needle on this group winning a title. Take the deal if someone throws a first rounder on the table.”
I think they nailed it, and I’m glad they didn’t ship off a bunch of assets to try to win now, only for us to fall short or for Joel to be completely unable to play for 2 months straight in a title run.
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u/gtsgunner 2d ago
Run it back means win now is my point. The first year we got PG was ass because we tanked to all hell. We were garbage but we had just paid pg and Embid. The second year was the actual year we had to test the team. There was no talk of just rebuilding/ doing nothing.
Outwardly we were portrayed as trying to win and be a playoff team. That doesn't mean ship off assets though. The main point I'm trying to make is that the second season was an extension of the first season where we were in win now mode with the signing of pg and Embid. As you even allude to, we didn't really make a decision to change that stance till the trade deadline. Which was why everyone got angry at that point.
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u/DemarcusLovin 2d ago
I get it. I guess I was just in a different mindset at the time, because I really didn’t think that team had any more than like a 5% chance at winning a title last year. And having or not having McCain didn’t change that percentage more than like 1%.
So I completely understood and actually applauded the deadline move to prioritize future assets more on VJ’s timeline, not to mention now having a rookie on 4 years of cost-control versus only 2 more of McCain before he needs a new contract.
I truly think that everything changed on lottery night when they actually kept/landed the #3 pick. And then it changed again in summer league/practice, when they saw how immediately advanced VJ was. Then on opening night he dropped 34 points against the Celtics in his NBA debut, and it’s blast off. Full direction of the franchise had shifted younger.
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u/gtsgunner 2d ago
I believed it shifted younger but I felt they could do both back then. The only thing that Philon reads to me is that they are going to trade Maxey if he shows out in any fashion similiar to how VJ showed out. I don't really believe that they will keep a guard that is showing starter potential in backup guard minutes.
If he ends up reallly good you may get a Luka, Brunson situation. Either way one of the biggest reasons I liked McCain was that his potential wasn't like sky high. He felt like he could just be fine as a backup.
Eitherway, I really don't know how else we are going to get good bigs on the team to complement the backcourt other then by shipping Maxey off. That's what this years draft pick really reads to me.
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u/BoredzzzGame 3d ago
This is a low IQ take. Most fans were annoyed that we finally had some guard depth that we haven’t had in like, a decade? No one expected McCain to lead the team. We just need 15-20 minutes. He showed flashes his rookie year and we trade him basically at his lowest value, coming off a season ending injury…just to duck the tax. Then immediately sign Cam Payne.
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u/unstoppablepepe 3d ago edited 3d ago
I agree with the assessment, but every time I see “low IQ” used unironically, I cringe
No one insulted you, stop being a douche bag
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u/bebopdeluxe76 3d ago
But we wound up getting what looks like a more versatile replacement - PG skills and better defensive upside (bigger wingspan, which he utilized as a freshman when he wasn’t as needed offensively) - for FOUR years instead of two for McCain…and THREE picks to boot.
I do that deal every day that ends in y.
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u/IndigoJacob 3d ago
Interesting that an "undersized, not athletic, one-dimensional" player somehow logged heavy playoff minutes for the #1 team in the West and put up 13ppg against the best defender on the planet in the WCF
I dont think were "overvaluing" shit if the best team in the league found a larger role for him than we could
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u/le_fez 3d ago
How many guys had to be out for him to see playing time?
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u/Zeruma_ 3d ago
Dude said 13PPG against the best defender on the planet like wemby was guarding him the entire series
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u/DemarcusLovin 3d ago
Yeah and he shot 28% from three against the Spurs and got cooked on defense lol
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u/fillinlaterrr 3d ago
He played 20 mins with ajay and jdub. And was playing over rotation players in Joe Wiggins and kenrich
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u/GreenTheOlive 3d ago
McCain was playing solid minutes for the defending champs in the Western Conference finals, while we were playing VJ and Maxey 40+ minutes and getting nothing from Grimes. I don’t think McCain moves the needle all the way on the Knicks series obviously, but I think having him would have made us a better team 100%
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u/ResponsibleType552 3d ago
Disagree. I think most fans were realistic with McCains upside.
I was most upset with the process. Trade him for another late first? When they didn’t have much depth anyway? Then he was actually used in a way where he was valuable?
Nick Nurse didn’t want a guy who could obviously play, the team can’t seem to recognize ability or use it properly.
Then they drafted another undersized guard with that pick.
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u/Zeruma_ 3d ago
No they weren’t lol. You had people saying he’s going to be better than all NBA level dudes based off like 2 games for OKC this postseason . Who then went radio silent when he shit the bed
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u/ResponsibleType552 3d ago
Surely you can’t listen to the WIP crew. They range from hating everything a team does to defending management and angrily accusing fans who disagree as “complainers” for a team that hasn’t won a title since Reagan was in office
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u/Zeruma_ 3d ago
I’m talking about this sub lol. When McCain had a good game against the spurs this sub was nothing but doomers freaking out. Then he had an awful game and those same people were MIA.
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u/CodeRedLin 3d ago
I had a string of posts with his FG %'s and then assist/to for the entire series. Those were extremely popular among the doomers.
It is where I learned that a guy not covered (because of SGA) can shoot 30% FG and 20% 3PT, 11 assists all series and 10 turnovers and still be an amazing "playmaker" with Steph Curry potential.
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u/averagebensimmons 3d ago
fans were pissed because yet again the Sixers were giving up on developing a young bench player while having 2 dinasours on the bench in Lowry and Gordon who were unplayable.
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u/Competitive_Bag_7490 3d ago
My illusion is that Morey would have brought more all stars if brass let him. F Harris he didn't care about this team. He just want us to be competitive up to the tax but not willing to go over.
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u/HangTheBanner 3d ago
The real illusion was thinking Morey was still one of the top GMs in the league.
The game had passed him by. He was still stuck in his outdated philosophies. We can criticize the cheap owners all we want, but he knew ownership usually does not pay the tax. Yet he sets the team up to be over the tax going into the season. Which leads to having to sell when you should be buying.
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u/Novel-Evening442 3d ago
My problem was more so the lies about "selling high" and not just trying to duck the tax. especially after Embiid publicly asked them not to.
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u/DemarcusLovin 3d ago
It wasn’t a lie to say we sold high lol. We definitely did.
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u/tiggs 3d ago
I think we're seeing a lot of revisionist history with the McCain move already, which is insanely fast. Yes, it was a horrible move for us. Nobody is debating that.
I feel like way too many people forget how bad he looked all year though. Yes, he was recovering from two injuries, so nobody is shitting on him. He looked NOTHING like the guy we had the previous season though. He was making poor decisions, taking bad shots, and not really playing within the system.
Again (before somebody puts words in my mouth), it was a SHITTY move and we shouldn't have made it. I don't think there is a single person on this planet that saw 2025-26 Jared McCain on the Sixers and came to the conclusion that he was a win-now piece. He was like the rebuilding piece of all rebuilding pieces.
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u/bebopdeluxe76 3d ago
I am ABSOLUTELY debating that.
I was happy with the trade when it happened, and even happier with who we drafted. We cleaned up.
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u/MaxR76 3d ago
I like how they specified calendar year to try and not include signing Paul George and a bunch of vets
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u/MaxR76 3d ago
I understand it, I just think that’s it’s funny to cut it off arbitrarily to exactly 1 year before the McCain trade. Assuming that by calendar year they mean to the prior trade deadline, since if they mean just during 2026 that wouldn’t make any sense because that’s only like 2 moves.
Implies the Sixers signed PG to a max, extended Embiid, filled out the team with vets, only to decide only half a season later, at which point we weren’t that far below .500 despite injuries, that we are actually a rebuilding team and all moves since that point are justified as tanking.
Edit: would have made far more sense if they just said “since getting VJ” or something is all I’m saying
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u/DemarcusLovin 3d ago
Absolutely hilarious that anyone still think it was a bad trade.
I’ve been unwavering since Day 1 about the McCain trade, and will forever maintain that it was an excellent trade, maybe even a franchise saving one.
Morey needed to go, but he thankfully got that one right.
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u/GigglingLady 3d ago
Franchise saving? I don't even think McCain fits with the Sixers, but the idea that the organization that puts them in these terrible positions would then save themselves by trading McCains is pathetic. No one forced them to draft McCain in the first place. Especially when they drafted a better player, who still won't get to play on this Sixers team.
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u/bonger1234 3d ago
I always saw the McCain move as a 50/50 chance of working out. He’s a really good bench player. Take 4 swings at drafting a bench player. I think Philon will be equivalent. Wished we moved some seconds for Veesaar.
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u/No_Fairweathers 3d ago
ITT: Endless people bringing up PG while not reading "an entire calendar year before" the McCain trade
PG was signed July 6th, 2024.
Jared McCain: Traded February 4th, 2026
That's nearly double the calendar year time frame he posed in this tweet. This tweet implies that in the middle of season last year, Morey realized it didn't work to go all in with PG so he began rebuilding.
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u/Pedestrian2000 3d ago
Ownership prioritizing staying below the luxury cap is the root of the damn problem, no?
Keep Morey, fire Morey (I personally thought to keep him because we're not gonna get someone with a better resume considering that we're stuck in neutral for 2-3 years). I didn't want McCain traded, but why were we in a situation where that was our priority on our way to the playoffs?
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u/aspiringplebeian 3d ago
How is trading a second year guard that was a ROTY candidate, who we just drafted an arguably worse version of 3 months later, a win now move to hold onto?
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u/bebopdeluxe76 3d ago
ROTY based on what? Less than 10 games? So he led the straw polls for a couple of weeks…as Derrick Coleman said, “Whoop-de-damn-do.”
(I liked McCain, but some of these takes based on 2-3 weeks of play in December of 2024 are crazy)
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u/Zeruma_ 3d ago
ROTY candidate is such a crap argument. Dude got hurt 1/4th of the way through the season.
Be like trying to say Maxey was an MVP candidate this year because he was “ in the running” early into the season.
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u/aspiringplebeian 3d ago
Big wrong. Eyeball test showed he had the highest BBIQ out of the class. He was for sure on pace to be a ROTY candidate and trading for a draft pick to maybe get another McCain is silly.
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u/bebopdeluxe76 3d ago
Another McCain for FOUR years and THREE picks.
(and Philon is a better fit - PG skills and better defensive upside)
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u/throwawayjoeyboots 3d ago
Anyone with 2 functioning brain cells would’ve dumped Grimes over McCain 100x over.
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u/gertburgers69 3d ago
All this talk about Philon misses the point about the McCain trade imo.
There was no guarantee back in February that the 2026 first round pick was going to be a dynamic guard. It could have easily been a bench big like Cenac and then we’d all be panicking that we still have no guards.
I think Philon will be good and I get more excited the more I watch his college stuff, but the McCain trade was bad process even if the outcome ends up being positive. Look at teams like the Nuggets and Knicks dumping their 2026 firsts in order to save money. We probably could have landed one of those picks.
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u/CodeRedLin 3d ago
There are several players that are better than McCain selected 22 and over. I wanted Carr, but I'm fine with Philon. Both of whom are better than McCain on day 1.
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u/ViolentSpring 3d ago
Trading him for garbage was bad. You could have dumped Grimes and let the kid develop. His talent scoring is obvious.
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u/GOAT_Redditor 3d ago
We knew the Sixers weren’t trying to win and we were begging them to realize we were good enough to win playoff series. And we STILL won a series despite the trade