Sixers excited to reunite with Jared McCain, but know he is ‘about to try to come kill us’

Trendon Watford now checks the box score after every Oklahoma City Thunder game for one reason.

He wants to see Jared McCain’s stats.

It has been more than six weeks since the 76ers traded McCain, the second-year guard who was an early NBA Rookie of The Year front-runner last season before working his way back from knee and thumb surgeries. He also was immensely popular with the fans and inside the Sixers’ locker room, thanks to a “good-vibes” personality, diligent work ethic, and a massive social-media following.

That is why Watford and Sixers rookie VJ Edgecombe cracked big smiles when asked what it will be like to reunite with McCain when the Sixers host the defending-champion Thunder on Monday night at Xfinity Mobile Arena.

“I honestly can’t wait to see J-Mac,” Watford said Saturday at his locker in Salt Lake City after the Sixers topped the Utah Jazz. “I’m super excited for him. Obviously, I think everybody in this locker room [knows] what kind of player and person he is.

“You love to see somebody like that get a new change of scenery, and then obviously continue to elevate their game.”

From a roster-building perspective, the Sixers dealing McCain for multiple draft picks the day before the Feb. 5 trade deadline was perplexing at the time. In the weeks since, the move has aged horrendously.

The 6-foot-3 combo guard has flourished since joining the streaking Thunder, an organization boasting perhaps the NBA’s premier front office and a track record of identifying and developing young talent.

McCain is averaging 12.3 points on 44% shooting from three-point range in 19 games with Oklahoma City, including four 20-point games. (He reached 20 points once in 37 games with the Sixers this season.) When asked recently about being unlocked by the screening of center Isaiah Hartenstein, McCain compared it to how former MVP center Joel Embiid and All-Star guard Tyrese Maxey play off each other. McCain could be poised for significant minutes Monday against the Sixers, after Thunder starter Ajay Mitchell was suspended for the game for his role in a brawl during Saturday’s matchup at the Washington Wizards.

Even though the Thunder already boast reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, All-Star Jalen Williams, defensive dynamos Cason Wallace, Lu Dort, and Alex Caruso, and sharpshooting former Sixer Isaiah Joe already at the guard spot, McCain is in contention to be in the playoff rotation for the title defense. Oklahoma City enters Monday on a 11-game winning streak to maintain the top spot in the Western Conference at 56-15.

Trading McCain got the Sixers under the luxury tax, an approach Embiid publicly requested that his team avoid this season. The day after the deadline, Sixers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey said he hoped the McCain deal would have been the precursor to another transaction, but the second component did not pan out before the deadline.

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That same day, Morey also made a controversial comment that, by receiving multiple picks including a 2026 first-rounder, he believed the Sixers had “sold high” on McCain.

After averaging 15.3 points in his first 23 NBA games, McCain struggled to immediately rediscover his outside shot and at-the-rim finishing in his return from a nearly 11-month injury absence after tearing his meniscus and a thumb ligament. He toggled in and out of the rotation — and even spent two brief stints with the G League’s Delaware Blue Coats — while part of a crowded Sixers guard group that had added Edgecombe and Quentin Grimes since McCain and Maxey formed an intriguing backcourt duo early in the 2024-25 season.

The McCain trade also has become a clear inflection point of the Sixers’ 2025-26 season, from a human and collective spirit standpoint.

The Sixers were together on the team bus when the news broke, creating an emotional goodbye scene that included McCain sobbing on the San Francisco airport tarmac. Maxey felt as if he was losing a younger brother, the first NBA teammate with whom he was the “vet” in the relationship. Center Adem Bona, who came into the league with McCain as part of the Sixers’ 2024 rookie class, spoke about missing McCain’s reminder to head to pregame chapel, a ritual for the team’s young players.

“That’s our dog,” Edgecombe added Saturday. “Everyone still [loves] Jared. I’m pretty sure it’s vice versa. I’m just happy to see him hooping.”

While responding to a broad March 3 question about recent team morale, Maxey acknowledged that the “trade deadline was difficult.” When asked to clarify if he was referencing McCain, Maxey said, “I definitely think we miss him, of course.”

“I ain’t gonna lie and say I don’t miss Jared,” Maxey added. “But I’m happy for him. I watch him in OKC. Hope he does well every single night that he plays — except when he plays us, of course. …

“This is a business, at the end of the day. I’ve seen many people traded that don’t want to get traded. … You can’t dwell on that. You’ve got to focus on the people in this building."

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The Sixers have sputtered to a 10-11 record since McCain’s departure, slipping into play-in tournament range. They can primarily blame another bout with multiweek injuries to Maxey (little finger sprain), Embiid (oblique strain in his side), and starting wing Kelly Oubre Jr. (elbow sprain), along with Paul George’s 25-game suspension for violating the NBA’s anti-drug policy that will conclude Monday.

Yet one could argue that this stretch is precisely when the Sixers could have benefited from having another guard with scoring and ballhandling ability on the roster.

In the postgame locker room following a March 9 loss at Cleveland, several Sixers watched the end of a Thunder-Nuggets down-to-the-wire matchup that could be regarded as the NBA’s best game of the regular season so far. When McCain hit a crucial three-pointer, Edgecombe yelled, “Mac in the clutch!”

After checking Thunder box scores for the last six-plus weeks, Watford is now eager to reunite with his former teammate. And once that love is exchanged, Watford has zero doubts about how McCain will approach his return to his former home floor.

“Jared McCain’s about to try to come kill us,” Watford said. “We know how that’s about to go.”