Sixers guard Jared McCain is named Eastern Conference rookie of the month
McCain led all rookies in scoring at 16.0 points per game in October and November.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Jared McCain was named the NBA’s Eastern Conference rookie of the month on Tuesday.
The 76ers guard led all rookies in scoring at 16.0 points per game in October and November. McCain became the team’s seventh player to win the award and the first since Ben Simmons during the 2017-18 season.
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“It feels amazing,” McCain of the award. “It’s something, obviously, I wanted to do, but still just trying to do whatever I can to better my development, and then, obviously, I got a bigger goal with that. So just a small piece of the puzzle, but definitely got to celebrate the little wins as well.”
McCain also led all rookies with seven games in which he scored at least 20 points and two games with 30 or more points, highlighted by his career-high 34 against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Nov. 13. The 16th overall pick in June’s NBA draft, McCain finished that game with 10 assists to join Hall of Famer Allen Iverson and Simmons as the only Sixers rookies with at least 30 points and 10 assists in a game.
McCain joined Iverson (11 times), Joel Embiid (10), and Jerry Stackhouse (eight) as the only Sixers rookies to score at least 20 points seven times.
He also had three games with at least five three-pointers. McCain’s 38 three-pointers through his first 15 games were the most by a rookie in franchise history, surpassing Iverson’s record of 36 in 1996.
Asked if this was really a goal of his, the 20-year-old responded, “yeah, yeah, for sure.”
“Rookie of the Week, the Month, all that stuff,” he added. “I love celebrating little wins. If I can get a good defensive possession, that’s a win for me.”
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The franchise’s other rookie of the month winners were Stackhouse, Iverson (twice), Michael Carter-Williams (four times), Embiid (three times), Dario Šarić (two times), and Simmons (four times).
Memphis Grizzlies swingman Jaylen Wells is the Western Conference rookie of the month.
“I just got to keep going, man,” McCain said of building off the award. “This is a small piece of the puzzle, like I said, but I just got to continue to work, continue to learn as much as I can. And learn from people like Kyle [Lowry] who just talk all the time, but has some good things to say sometimes, but yeah, for sure.”