Looking back at the Jared McCain trade

With it now being almost two months since the Oklahoma City Thunder acquired 22-year-old guard Jared McCain from the Philadelphia 76ers, in exchange for just a 2026 first-round pick, and three future second-round picks, it is still extremely surprising that the Sixers even agreed to this deal.

After all, the Sixers have been in desperate need of a consistent court presence, especially in their second unit, due to all the injuries limiting player time.

With guys like Joel Embiid, Paul George, Kelly Oubre and Tyrese Maxey out, they could have used a strong, young guard to lead the floor more than ever.

Instead, the Sixers bench is now forced to rely on Cameron Payne, Quentin Grimes, and even Kyle Lowry on some occasions. These are all not only significantly worse options than McCain in terms of skill and production, but they are all much older and more expensive as well.

McCain began his rookie season in Philadelphia, looking like the clear winner for Rookie of the Year and shining a light on an extremely underwhelming rookie class.

In just a short 23-game span, he had 19 points, three rebounds, and three assists per game while barely ever starting.

However, due to multiple injuries, including a concussion, a left meniscus tear, and a Torn UCL over the offseason, he could not play as much as the Sixers had obviously hoped.

Despite this lack of playtime, prematurely trading him off for nearly nothing was not the best move that could have been made, no matter how badly he was playing.

And even if he did have a short slump to start this year, that is still completely fine, as he is just beginning to come back after suffering three back-to-back serious injuries that forced him to be sidelined for nearly a year.

If salary was the driving reason why they decided to part with McCain for so cheap, there were so many other ways to handle that problem as well, instead of blindly trading one of their best players over to the best team in the NBA.

It also turns out that McCain would not even be that expensive of an asset for the Sixers, as he would only account for around three percent of their total salary cap over the next two years, with guys like Andre Drummond, Kelly Oubre Jr., Quentin Grimes, and even Dominick Barlow all making significantly more than McCain’s rookie contract.

It also only seems that the Sixers planned to remove this space so they could barely avoid the luxury tax.

However, when three players have been consistently taking up over 90% of your cap space, with Joel Embiid set to make over $67 million in the 2028-29 season, where he will be 35, it doesn’t seem like they have ever cared about the salary tax until now.

Looking past the Sixers' obvious blunder, this was an extremely smart move for the Thunder to make, even though they may be one of the most stacked teams in terms of guards without McCain.

The Thunder have dealt with many injuries throughout this season, and McCain has been able to adapt to his new environment very quickly, where he is now playing more minutes on average than he even was at the peak of his career with the 76ers.

It was also very surprising that the Thunder even chose to make any moves at the deadline, since they have been dominating the entirety of the NBA, with the number one record in the entire league, and fresh off a championship win.

However, the Thunder's ability to look into the future and never be truly satisfied is what makes their front office, and Sam Presti, one of the most reliable and successful in the game, while the Sixers have struggled for the larger part of a decade.

This trade has also worked out significantly well for Jared McCain, which is another great thing to see since he was struggling so frequently just a few short months ago.

On his new team, he is now averaging double the points he had on the Sixers, jumping from six to 12.5 in just a few weeks, and getting a lot more opportunities in bigger moments, due to his championship-level supporting cast.

While at the end of the day, we have not been able to see what the Sixers will do with the recent draft acquisitions gained from this trade, I simply cannot see how they will be able to draft someone who could have a similar impact on the team as McCain did, with the limited resources they now have.

Therefore, it is hard for me to say that this trade can be classified as anything short of a robbery from the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Nick Myers is a first-year majoring in Journalism. To contact him, email nwm5344@psu.edu.