Sixers rookie guard Jared McCain may be the talk of the town and the clear frontrunner for the NBA's Rookie of the Year Award. But to Tyrese Maxey, he is "Young."
Maxey -- not far removed from being the wide-eyed rookie guard with an even wider smile and a whole lot of potential himself -- has relished the opportunity to be a veteran presence for McCain. Sometimes, that means giving helpful advice and tips pertaining to basketball or life in the NBA. Other times, though, it means Maxey can constantly remind McCain that he is older and wiser. Most of all, though, Maxey makes sure McCain remembers who is in charge -- and he does it with the same grin McCain carries himself.
So, after scoring 30 points and knocking down six three-pointers to help the Sixers finally get back in the win column, McCain waited patiently as Maxey finished getting dressed. McCain would not speak before Maxey, the All-Star decided. Eventually, the parties involved brokered a deal that McCain and Maxey would conduct a joint postgame press conference.
McCain and Maxey migrated from the Sixers' locker room to the room designated for press conferences. "Young" had a question for Maxey.
"Which chair do you want?"
As the two guards sat down, McCain muttered in awe, "I feel cool up here with you."
McCain and Maxey share many qualities off the floor, including an upbeat demeanor -- during the team's training camp in The Bahamas, Joel Embiid said that McCain reminded him of Maxey because McCain also "smiles for no reason" -- but after several minutes dominated by humor, the rookie spoke genuinely about the impact Maxey has had on him to conclude the joint media availability.
"He's been instrumental in [influencing my confidence]," McCain said. "Since I got drafted, he's been texting me to always keep my confidence, always be myself. I think that's the main thing he's always told me, is just to continue to be myself no matter what social media says, whatever happens off the court, just stay true to myself. Even when everybody comes back from injury and stuff, always stay true to yourself and how you play. So I'm just trying to continue that, and it's easy to take advice from someone like him."
Maxey offered doses of praise of McCain in between reminders about the rookie status of the 20-year-old sitting to his right.
"He's good at basketball, man. He's fearless. So when you're fearless like that, you have that type of confidence, it's a good thing," Maxey said. "We need that. We need him to be that guy for the duration of the season. [There will] be different times where he has to play different roles... But he has to be the guy who's fearless."
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One basketball-related trait which McCain and Maxey appear to have in common: the ability to come through in high-leverage situations.
With just minutes remaining and the Sixers facing the prospect of a 2-13 record if they failed to regain a lead they could hold onto against Brooklyn, the Sixers' newly-minted starting backcourt made a decision: the Sixers would win this game, and no other outcome was acceptable.
McCain and Maxey took things into their own hands accordingly: they combined to take eight shots in a row and made every single one of them:
Despite their similarly jovial demeanors, McCain and Maxey do not have identical skillsets on the floor. McCain already does much more operating in between the three-point line and the paint than Maxey, but Maxey has a vastly superior first step, enabling him to blow by defenders off the dribble in a way McCain is not capable of doing.
One more thing the two guards share, however, is constant movement. Neither is satisfied with being stationary and not leveraging their dynamic scoring abilities for good. That sort of unrelenting motion from two players at once causes trouble for opposing defenses.
What is it like to play alongside?
"It's amazing," said Guerschon Yabusele, who filled in for Embiid as the team's starting center on Friday night and recorded a double-double. "You know, you go over there, you set screens, you try to pop, try to make things easy for them, and you enjoy the show."
"It's pretty easy to play with him," McCain said of Maxey. "There's so much attention he draws. Any time he has the ball, I feel like I'm open because they're always inching towards him when he drives. So I'm just ready, I'm ready for anything that he passes my way... I just try to play off this great guy."
Maxey, whose efficiency early in the season went into the tank as Embiid and Paul George missed time and the Sixers could not find a second reliable on-ball scorer, almost seems relieved now that McCain has proved himself capable of handling such a significant offensive workload.
"When you have two ball-handlers out there, it makes the game a lot easier. He doesn't get tired because he's going over and over again, I'm not going to get tired from going over and over and over again," Maxey said. "You can kind of catch your breath a little bit. I know he's going to make the right play. I know I'll try to make the right play as well. So then you have guys flying around, making shots and playing extremely hard on defense and offense."
Maxey could not let his appreciation for "Young" get carried away, though. As a reporter asked Maxey what he and his teammates could learn from their dramatic victory, he took a sip of his drink and turned to McCain to make sure the rookie knew he had to handle it.