Why Jared McCain is deciding what 76ers do with Quentin Grimes

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Why Jared McCain is deciding what 76ers do with Quentin Grimes originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The Philadelphia 76ers continue to sit at home, and all they can do is watch as Jared McCain has helped the Oklahoma City Thunder to the verge of the NBA Finals.

Meanwhile, the 'Sixers have to decide what to do with Quentin Grimes. And these realities are more connected than it seems.

In fact, ESPN's Tim Bontemps wrote in a new article on Thursday that what Philadelphia decides to do with Grimes will be quite tied to McCain.

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How Jared McCain impacts Quentin Grimes​

In essence, the 76ers chose at the trade deadline to keep Grimes and trade McCain.

They may not have had similar offers available for Grimes, but the reality is that there was a logjam and Philly chose McCain as the guy to get rid of.

"With Jared McCain's emergence as a critical piece of Oklahoma City's push to return to the NBA Finals for a second straight year, the pressure on the 76ers to retain Grimes -- whom they chose to keep over McCain at February's trade deadline -- grows by the day," Bontemps writes. "Since-fired president of basketball operations Daryl Morey traded McCain for a first-round pick and three second-rounders."

The salary-cap implications of the 76ers keeping Grimes are tricky, though.

"Keeping Grimes -- along with fellow free agent wing Kelly Oubre Jr. -- would cause Philadelphia to go well into the luxury tax, something the team has repeatedly avoided in recent years," Bontemps writes. "It will be one of the first important decisions for whoever is hired to replace Morey (a decision expected to come fairly soon)."

The good news for 76ers fans, at least those who like Grimes, is that he'll probably end up staying put.

"The belief overall is that Grimes will land something at or below the midlevel exception, and ultimately, it will come from the 76ers," Bontemps writes.

Whether that's better than having McCain is a different discussion altogether.

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