{"id":459265,"date":"2026-02-05T04:03:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T04:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/459265\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T04:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T04:03:08","slug":"sixers-trade-jared-mccain-to-thunder-for-draft-compensation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/459265\/","title":{"rendered":"Sixers Trade Jared McCain To Thunder For Draft Compensation"},"content":{"rendered":"

7:59 pm: The trade sending McCain to the Thunder is now official, the team announced in a press release. In order to open up a roster spot for the newcomer, Oklahoma City waived Plumlee, who was acquired from Charlotte in a separate deal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"1:02 pm: The Sixers and Thunder have agreed to a trade that will send Jared McCain<\/a> to Oklahoma City for Houston\u2019s 2026 first-round pick (which the Thunder control) and three second-rounders, sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The three second-round picks involved in the trade are a 2027 selection (most favorable of Thunder, Rockets, Pacers and Heat), OKC\u2019s own 2028 pick, and Milwaukee\u2019s 2028 second, reports Kyle Neubeck of PHLY Sports (via Twitter<\/a>).<\/p>\n

McCain, who turns 22 years old later this month, was the 16th overall pick in the 2024 draft. The former Duke guard got off to an excellent start to his rookie campaign, averaging 15.3 points, 2.6 assists and 2.4 rebounds on .460\/.383\/.875 shooting in 23 games (25.7 minutes per contest), but missed the remainder of 2024\/25 after undergoing season-ending knee surgery.<\/p>\n

McCain\u2019s \u201925\/26 debut was delayed<\/a> after he suffered ligament damage in his thumb, which required surgery<\/a>. The injury occurred in an offseason workout just before training camp.<\/p>\n

Although McCain has played a bit better recently, he largely hasn\u2019t played at the same level as he did as a rookie, averaging 6.6 PPG, 2.0 RPG and 1.7 APG on .385\/.378\/.880 shooting in 37 games (16.8 MPG). He was sent to the G League multiple times to get more playing time and to try and find his rhythm.<\/p>\n

Assuming Philadelphia doesn\u2019t receive a player back in return, the team would generate a traded player exception worth $4,221,360, which is how much money McCain makes this season.<\/p>\n

The Sixers likely viewed McCain as a luxury rather than a necessity due to the strong backcourt play of All-Star Tyrese Maxey<\/a> and standout rookie VJ Edgecombe<\/a>. It\u2019s worth noting that all three players are on the smaller side as well, so it would be difficult to play them all at once.<\/p>\n

The Thunder, meanwhile, have an excess of future first-round picks and will be betting that McCain can recapture his previous form in a new environment. His rookie scale contract covers two more years beyond \u201925\/26 for a total of $11.2MM.<\/p>\n

Jake Fischer of The Stein Line hears Thunder forward Ousmane Dieng<\/a> may be involved in the deal as well (Twitter link<\/a>). According to Fischer (Twitter link<\/a>), there\u2019s momentum on a trade that would send Dieng to the Hornets for Mason Plumlee<\/a>. Shedding Dieng\u2019s salary rather than waiving him would help the Thunder stay below the luxury tax threshold.<\/p>\n

Avoiding the tax is also presumably a consideration for the Sixers, who will receive a tax variance credit as a result of Paul George\u2019s 25-game suspension<\/a> and are in position to finish the season as a non-taxpayer after moving McCain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"7:59 pm: The trade sending McCain to the Thunder is now official, the team announced in a press…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,68172,32200,71860,85],"class_list":["post-459265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-jared-mccain","tag-mason-plumlee","tag-ousmane-dieng","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}