Jared McCain Reminds You of a Former Sixers All-Star
Who exactly does Jared McCain remind you of in Sixers history? I mean, you have a couple of solid options, such as Lou Williams or Dana Barros. Lemon Pepper Lou came to mind first because of the offensive bag he had. He was a three-level scorer and consistently shot 40% or higher from the field. Then, I thought of Barros because of the court vision and three-point shot-making that McCain shared with him. See, McCain sank two three-pointers a game, similar to Barros' all-star season in Philly.
On the other hand, I think this underrated player better suits McCain’s game. The player that I think better fits the mold is one-time all-star Hersey Hawkins. Hawkins was a combo guard who could score and pass the ball, similarly to what McCain showed in his rookie campaign. Hawkins played his first five seasons in the league as a Sixer. Over the course of those five seasons, he averaged 19 points, three assists, and two steals per game.
However, if we look at his rookie season campaign, we can see that he averaged 15 points and close to three assists per game. A very similar stat line from McCain’s rookie year as well. Both players had two 30-point games. A couple of key differences between the two are that McCain has a better passing game, and Hawkins has a better defensive game. While Hawkins is much more efficient from the outside arc, McCain has an accomplishment that only three other Sixers have achieved. Four Sixers’ rookies have at least one game of making six three pointers in a game. Landry Shamet and Hollis Thompson have one game, McCain has two, and Allen Iverson has three games.
While this may be pure speculation, it is pretty exciting to see something familiar in young players’ games. So, for longtime Sixer fans, seeing flashes of ’90s star Hawkins would get fans to start tuning into live games. When McCain was on the court, fans were already piling in to possibly see a star in the making. Let’s see if this is more of a coincidence or a replication between the undersized combo guards.
