The Philadelphia 76ers might be on the verge of their season collapsing, with a disastrous 2-12 star amidst injuries and load management for the team’s top three stars Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, and Paul George.
Amidst the rotational flux, rookie Jared McCain has emerged as a highly productive player, with George showering the rookie with praise and demanding he and his teammates match McCain’s energy.
“Jared’s been awesome, he just plays with such a swag. He knows he belongs, it don’t matter who’s on the floor, he knows he belongs and he plays like it. To be quite frank, he’s been our most consistent player on the team so far. He should be a candidate. We definitely got to step our s*** up. He can’t be our most consistent player. We all gotta step our s*** up and match that energy. He’s got a great future.”
PG & Reggie Jackson show love to the rook Jared McCain for holding his own.
PG: "He knows he belongs. It don’t matter who’s on the floor.”
Reggie: "I enjoy seeing his fearlessness." pic.twitter.com/GCpnjL4N0q
— Podcast P with Paul George (@PodcastPShow) November 21, 2024
McCain shrugged off a slow start to the season with limited minutes to become one of the best contributors on the 76ers, averaging 24.4 points and 4.1 assists over his last seven games. Maxey recently returned from a hamstring injury, with McCain shining in his absence.
George will now potentially serve some time on the injury list after re-injuring his left knee with a hyperextension in their loss to the Grizzlies. While Joel Embiid is expected to start playing more games, the team is far behind on the season already with the inconsistencies of the stars.
They need to overcome a 10-game deficit to just reach .500 again, let alone make a Playoff push. With the injury concerns around Embiid and George mainly, the 76ers’ push for contention might already be over in the first month of the season.
Paul George Addresses 76ers Team Meeting After Recent Loss
After the team lost to the Memphis Grizzlies, they decided to have a team meeting where Tyrese Maxey reportedly called Joel Embiid out for setting a poor tone by being late ‘to everything.’ George, who suffered a knee injury in that loss, commented on the same during his podcast, expressing shock over Shams Charania revealing the details of the meeting.
“I don’t know how the f**k Shams got that story or how that even leaked. The whole meeting, that’s normal in the NBA.”
He went in-depth on the meeting happening because the team wants the best for each other and to stop their current freefall.
“That’s normal in the NBA– teams go through that. I’ve been on multiple teams where we’ll at some point have a meeting and a check-in if things aren’t going right or if we know we could be playing better and we’re trying to get the most out of one another, that’s normal. That happens. That’s not really, you know what I mean? Like something to run with because teams go through that and it was healthy, it was positive conversation, it was healthy conversations. We all just want the best.”
With the turmoil in the 76ers locker room just one month into a season with so much hope, they need to find a way to reset as soon as possible. They need to be near perfect to recover their record and make it competitive atop the Conference, so if that goal isn’t on track, they’ll have to adjust to a potential tank.
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