The Philadelphia 76ers\u2019 first move of trade season is a potentially unpopular shuffle of the backcourt.<\/p>\n
The 76ers have reportedly agreed to trade Jared McCain to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for a collection of four draft picks, effectively cashing in their 2024 first-round pick for more trade flexibility.<\/p>\n
The assets include Houston\u2019s first-round pick in 2026, plus a second-rounder in 2027 that is the most favorable of Oklahoma City\/Houston\/Indiana\/Miami and the 2028 second-round picks of Milwaukee and Oklahoma City. The first-rounder this year would be 26th as it stands.<\/p>\n
The 76ers hold 13 second-round picks in upcoming drafts, bolstered by this deal and last year\u2019s swap of Reggie Jackson for Jared Butler that dealt the 76ers\u2019 2026 first-rounder for a m\u00e9lange of second-rounders.<\/p>\n
In theory, that gives the\u00a076ers flexibility to add this year, perhaps as an inducement for another team to take a salary off their books. The combination of McCain\u2019s departure and the 25-game suspension for a positive drug test for Paul George brings the 76ers under the luxury tax threshold this season. But 76ers general manager Daryl Morey has never stated that as an explicit goal, and the team\u2019s position in a weak Eastern Conference would seem opportune for pushing for an end of a 25-year drought of advancing past the second round.<\/p>\n
Wednesday\u2019s move, unless paired with something else, doesn\u2019t make the 76ers more competitive, on the back of five straight wins that have them a half-game out of fourth place in an injury-diminished East.<\/p>\n
McCain\u2019s departure is unfortunate, coming just 60 games into an NBA career that started with much promise. The 21st overall pick in 2024 averaged 15.3 points per game in 23 outings as a rookie before a meniscus tear suffered in December. He was a Rookie of the Year favorite when he went down and still finished seventh in Rookie of the Year voting last year.<\/p>\n
This year has been a stop-start affair. He tore a ligament in his thumb on the eve\u00a0of preseason, delaying his start to the season until early November. He remained encumbered by braces on his thumb and knee, requiring a couple of polishing stints in the G League.<\/p>\n
He has at times fallen out of the 76ers\u2019 rotation, the team skating by with a three-guard rotation that includes 2025 No.3 overall pick VJ Edgecombe. McCain is averaging 6.6 points, 2.0 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 16.8 minutes per game this year, his 3-point percentage dipping some to 37.8.<\/p>\n
McCain\u2019s departure makes retaining Quentin Grimes, acquired at the deadline last year, more plausible. It clears one of the roster spots needed for the conversion of contributing two-way forwards Jabari Walker and Dominick Barlow, the former out of games on his two-way contract as of Tuesday\u2019s win over Golden State.<\/p>\n
The 76ers have 14 players on the roster after the McCain deal. One is Charles Bassey, soon to have a 10-day contract expire. Another is Eric Gordon, a likely salary dump after appearing in just six games this season.<\/p>\n
With the 76ers entering the deadline over the luxury-tax threshold and within sight of the first hard-cap apron, any addition would\u2019ve required a subtraction. The 76ers could gain space to deal if they can convert Andre Drummond into a cheaper back-up center option or if they can sweeten a deal for someone to take Gordon with the cornucopia of second-round picks. McCain\u2019s departure leaves them slightly short in the ball-handling department with George out until late March, perhaps accentuating the value of potential trade targets like Trendon Watford and Kelly Oubre to remain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Philadelphia 76ers\u2019 first move of trade season is a potentially unpopular shuffle of the backcourt. The 76ers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3769],"tags":[679,7,6,678,207,3817,66,7464],"class_list":{"0":"post-583024","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-76ers","8":"tag-76ers","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-76ers","13":"tag-philadelphia76ers","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-top-stories-tmc"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116015255370489006","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}