Another 76ers miracle has gifted them Tyrese Maxey 2.0

In sports, one seemingly irrelevant bounce can change the landscape of a game or league entirely. The 2020 NBA Draft was a prime example of that. The Philadelphia 76ers owned an Oklahoma City Thunder draft pick which was top-20 protected. That means that if the pick landed in the top 20 of the 2020 NBA Draft, the Thunder would keep the pick and the Sixers would have to wait another year to use it.

The Thunder faced off against the Miami Heat in a game at the NBA bubble which appeared meaningless on paper, but turned out to be anything but that for Philadelphia in particular. If the Heat won, the Thunder would get the pick. if the Thunder won, the pick would belong to Philadelphia. Oklahoma City was trailing by three points late in the fourth quarter, but Thunder center Mike Muscala tied the game with a three-pointer. After Miami regained a two-point lead, Muscala drilled another three with five seconds remaining. The Thunder closed out an unlikely win.

In many years, the No. 21 pick isn't so valuable. Teams can find a decent role player, but it's hard to find many stars that late in the draft. Well, the Sixers did just that, selecting Tyrese Maxey at No. 21 overall. Maxey averaged just 15.3 minutes per game in his rookie season, but made strides every year that followed to the point where he's now considered one of the best guards in the Eastern Conference. He's the most important player on this Sixers team not named Joel Embiid.

As if the Sixers weren't lucky enough to land Maxey in the fashion that they did, it's looking like another miracle has taken place on Broad Street, allowing them to draft another promising guard, Jared McCain.

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It sure looks like the 76ers lucked into another budding star

As if the way that the Sixers lucked into taking Maxey wasn't crazy enough, look at what had to happen for the Sixers to draft McCain with the No. 16 pick of the 2024 NBA Draft.

The Sixers were one of four teams to finish last season with a regular season record of 47-35. They could've picked anywhere between No. 16 and No. 19 overall. The order was decided using a four-way coin flip. The Sixers won said flip, earning the first of those four picks, allowing them to take McCain.

All McCain has done since that selection is shine. The 20-year-old has averaged 14.8 points per game this season on high-end efficiency despite playing only 20 minutes per game. He has averaged over 32 minutes per game in his last five games, all with Maxey out, and is averaging 26.2 points and 4.0 assists in those games. In other words, he has looked like Maxey 2.0.

Will he continue to score at this high of a level? Maybe not, but this is what McCain is doing at 20 years old in his first opportunity at starter-level minutes.

The path to stardom is certainly clear, and at the very least, it's looking like the Sixers got themselves a steal at No. 16 overall. If they had finished anywhere else in the coin flip, they might've missed out on their chance to select him. Again, the Sixers appear to have lucked into a budding star without even doing anything themselves. The team has struggled mightily, but McCain's emergence has been a nice bright spot.