This post was originally published on this site.
The Sixers’ biggest bit of business at the trade deadline was also their most surprising. The team sent second-year guard Jared McCain to the Oklahoma City Thunder for draft compensation.
McCain was the 16th overall pick in 2024, the Rookie of the Year favorite pre-injury, and is still just 21 years old, on a rookie deal through the 2027-28 season and unable to even hit restricted free agency until the 2028-29 season.
So, why trade a player like that, especially when the trade did nothing to help Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and the 2025-26 Sixers?
President of basketball operations Daryl Morey did his best to explain the decision.
“We see Jared as somebody that’s more likely to help a team in the future,” Morey said. “I think that’s fairly obvious; I think he has a bright future. We thought that the draft picks we got would help us more in the future — and could’ve helped us this deadline. The picks we got were offered to many teams and nothing materialized for a player that we thought could move the needle with those picks now. But we feel like going forward, those picks will help us build the team in the future in a good way.”
OK, let’s break down those comments a bit.
McCain undoubtedly struggled this year returning from a torn meniscus and also a UCL tear he suffered ahead of training camp. He missed the first six games of the season, struggled to find consistent playing time and never truly regained his form from a season ago. Though he’d shown flashes recently, it was fair to wonder if this was simply going to be a lost season for McCain.
While Morey said he wanted to use the draft capital he got in the deal to make an upgrade this season, the order of operations suggests the McCain deal still would’ve gone down no matter what. Sure, as Morey stated, the team got the deal done early so they could explore other options, but without a separate deal already in place, McCain would’ve been gone either way.
This wasn’t about ducking the tax. This wasn’t about improving this season — though the team surely did try to flip the assets for an upgrade. Morey can drop all the niceties about McCain he’d like, but it seems obvious the team valued the compensation and the future flexibility over rostering McCain. Whether it was fit or not believing in his future, the organization was ready to move on from McCain.
Many will fairly question the timing. The team could still use guard depth as Maxey leads the NBA in minutes per game and VJ Edgecombe leads all rookies. So, why not let the season play out when a similar offer would likely be on the table this offseason? And wasn’t the franchise selling McCain at his nadir value after such a promising rookie campaign?
“I’m quite confident we were selling high,” Morey said. “Obviously, time will tell. We weren’t looking to sell. I’ll be frank. Teams came to us with aggressive offers for him. You could say, ‘Yeah, that’s because he’s a good player.’ I agree with that. We thought this return was above, for the future value of our franchise, what we could get. The only higher point would’ve been during his run last season. Otherwise, we feel like we did time this well.”
Morey defended the return for McCain, saying it was superior to the value of a deal for a quality starting-caliber player. While Morey did make note that the consensus is the 2026 NBA draft is considered a good and deep one, he also admitted that wasn’t really the motivation behind the trade.
“That wasn’t the main focus,” he said. “I think it’s a nice focus, because we do think this draft is a good draft, but we’re not necessarily using the pick in this draft. It could be used for moves around the draft. The three seconds that we got with it, we think those could be used to move up in this draft. Obviously, myself and our front office have done a lot of deals over the years, and this just gives us more tools to make the moves that we think will help our future more than we saw with Jared, who we gave up. But that’s not a comment on Jared.”
Again, Morey has to say it’s “not a comment on Jared,” but how could it not be? It’s clear the starting backcourt for the next decade or so should be Maxey and Edgecombe. It’s also clear that Morey and the team preferred attempting to re-sign Quentin Grimes this offseason over letting him walk and hoping McCain could take over as the team’s top guard off the bench.
In the end, this is what it’s about — Morey and the Sixers felt the assets they got were more valuable to them than Jared McCain. We’ll find out soon enough if that’s the case.