NEW YORK — In the guests’ locker room at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday, Oklahoma City Thunder ahead Jalen Williams referred to as consideration to the large smile on Jared McCain’s face.
“He’s so happy,” Williams stated.
Williams addressed McCain immediately: “What are you so happy about?”
“We won!” McCain stated.
Oklahoma City had simply eked out a 103-100 victory towards the New York Knicks, enhancing to a league-best 49-15. It had additionally improved to 9-3 since acquiring McCain from the Philadelphia 76ers, regardless of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander lacking 9 of these video games and Williams lacking 10.
“Oh, you played in Philly, you’re not used to that shit,” Williams stated.
“What do you mean?” McCain responded. “They’re like sixth in the East.”
The fact is that McCain is as cheerful a personality as you will discover within the NBA. Regardless of the state of affairs he is in, he tries to “turn it into a positive,” he advised me. And in his first month with the Thunder, the reigning NBA champions, there was lots to smile about.
McCain has performed 12 video games for his new group, and he has scored at the least 20 factors in three of them. The 6-foot-3 guard has averaged 11.9 factors in 19.2 minutes per sport on 47/41/90 capturing splits, flying off screens and flattening midrange jumpers and 3s with the identical pep in his step that he had earlier than his knee damage final season, at which level he was the frontrunner for Rookie of the Year.
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To be clear, McCain by no means needed to go away the Sixers. He was “completely blindsided” by the commerce, he stated. He is “really grateful,” although, to have landed with Oklahoma City for various causes.
McCain loves the best way that the Thunder play. “This offense is amazing,” he stated, praising the group’s collective chemistry and unselfishness. He loves taking part in off Isaiah Hartenstein, the large man Gilgeous-Alexander described as a “dream” to play with after simply two regular-season video games final season.
“It’s being able to find where I want the ball but also find my man after he passes the ball, when he drops the passes,” McCain stated. “Or being able to just pitch it and then come off. Just that little bit of space is all a shooter needs to get something off. And if I got a little bit of an advantage, I know I can either get to the bump mid or get to a 3.”
He loves the best way that coach Mark Daigneault thinks. Anyone who has been across the group has heard Daigneault speak about being current, having a 0-0 mindset and resilience being a muscle you possibly can construct. McCain is a devoted re-reader of “The Inner Game of Tennis” — once I talked about the e book, he confirmed me the copy he had in his bag — and has practiced meditation and visualization since he was in highschool.
“When you can mesh like that with a coach, it’s really awesome,” McCain stated, recalling his first assembly with Daigneault and normal supervisor Sam Presti earlier than the 2024 draft.
“Being able to just talk to them about, ‘How is Shai so good?’ It was process-oriented, the daily habits,” McCain stated. “It’s the consistency, the discipline. That’s all stuff that I love. I love that ‘Atomic Habits,’ the ‘1% Better,’ the do one thing, get really good at it, then focus on the next thing. It’s been really cool to just have conversations with them, get to know ’em, because it’s the same mindset I have.”
Early in McCain’s sixth sport with the Thunder, he ran a throw-and-go with Hartenstein, drove baseline, kicked the ball out to Cason Wallace after which relocated for an open 3. If one possession demonstrates his promise, it is this one. He is a risk with the ball in his fingers and may be a good greater risk when he eliminates the ball.
For the entire individuals who began launching deep 3s due to Stephen Curry, few NBA gamers have tried to mix off-the-dribble capturing with off-ball motion the best way he does. McCain stated that, as a result of he idolized and studied Curry — and since he performed subsequent to elite ballhandlers at Centennial High School and Duke — he has all the time tried to get entangled within the sport by way of motion, quite than “just standing in the corner waiting for something to happen.” He knew, coming into the NBA, that this might make him stand out. He additionally knew that, as a defender, your intuition is to chill out when the man you are guarding makes a move.
“You stop and you look at the ball,” McCain stated. “You’re taught that. It’s basically once your guy gets in the paint and he passes the ball out, you can kind of be in help. But once you’re able to just get back out quick and take those backpedal shots or get-out-quick shots, those are the ones that are some of my favorites.”
With not solely Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams however guard Ajay Mitchell sidelined when he arrived, McCain has given OKC a well timed spark. Daigneault stated that McCain has performed his sport with confidence whereas having respect for the Thunder’s continuity and what they’ve achieved.
“That’s a very fine needle to thread,” Daigneault stated. “The last guys that did that well were Hartenstein and Alex [Caruso], but they did it in the preseason with a build-up. And they’re veteran players. It’s a huge testament to him. He’s found that balance right off the bat. He’s earned a lot of respect from everybody because of that.”
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Daigneault additionally stated, although, that it might have been positive if McCain had gotten off to a tough begin. “You don’t know, when you trade for a guy, how they’re going to integrate,” he stated. For the Thunder, this has been a strategy of “discovery” — they are not attempting to match him into a particular position, however letting his position emerge naturally.
“We’re just kind of like throwing him out there,” Daigneault stated, “and telling him to play inside the team and telling him kind of the non-negotiable things, the fundamental things that everybody has to do. And then give him a level of breathing room around that to figure out how to play, have his teammates figure out how he can play with them.”
As difficult as it’s to drop the whole lot, transfer to a special metropolis and take a look at to adapt to a brand new group in the midst of a season, there can be one thing psychologically liberating about being traded. For McCain, there was lots to study, however there was no expectation that he would choose all of it up instantly. This setting, to date, has been ideally suited.
“They allow me to be myself,” McCain stated.
Before the commerce, McCain didn’t all the time really feel or appear like himself on the court docket this season. Coming off a torn UCL in his proper thumb and a torn lateral meniscus in his left knee, he tried to shake off nearly a 12 months’s value of rust on a group that was successful video games and had a way more crowded backcourt than it did earlier than he bought harm.
On the primary anniversary of his 34-point game as a rookie, he shot 3 for 10 in his first G League sport. There have been some encouraging moments — he caught fireplace in a back-to-back towards Charlotte and Milwaukee in late January — however, in 37 video games for the Sixers, he averaged simply 6.6 factors on 50.6% true capturing.
“I have nothing bad to say about none of the teammates, none of the coaches, but it’s just hard to find a rhythm playing with really great players and getting little short spurts,” McCain stated. “There were a few games, for sure, that I felt great. I feel like those were the ones where I got to play a little extended minutes, play through some mistakes.”
McCain stated it is “nobody’s fault” that he did not persistently discover his type in Philly. “I knew it was going to take time,” he stated. “It’s even still taking time. I feel great right now, but sometimes, you know, some days are better than others.”
With Tyrese Maxey taking part in at an All-NBA degree and rookie VJ Edgecombe trying like a star within the making, McCain “wasn’t thinking about a trade at all,” he stated. He was assured that his alternatives would come and that he may develop alongside them.
“I definitely thought it could work,” McCain stated. “Long-term, I definitely think it could work. I loved playing with them. It was really fun. And I’m going to miss it, too. So I think there was definitely potential there, but they made the best decision for what they thought it was and we’ve just gotta live with it and kind of move on.”
Philadelphia sent him to Oklahoma City for a first-round choose and two seconds. He is conscious that a big portion of the Sixers’ fanbase was upset. In the second, he was too.
“I’m right there with the fans,” McCain stated. “I was scared, man. I didn’t know. I was emotional with it, it was a lot going on and it was hard to process. So I’m forever still grateful for Philly. It’s always hard. Like, you don’t get to say goodbye. It’s really like a breakup.”
The name from Sixers normal supervisor Daryl Morey was to the purpose. Afterward, he flew with the remainder of the group from San Francisco to Los Angeles as scheduled, shedding tears as he bought on the airplane. While all people else had a sport towards the Los Angeles Lakers the subsequent day, he flew from L.A. to OKC.
“They call you and it’s just so, like, cold, almost,” McCain stated. “It’s like, damn. They drafted me. It just feels like it just ended so quickly. The call that you get traded is, like, ‘Hey, we just traded you,’ and that’s kind of it. So it’s really, it’s almost sad. It’s really sad. It really is sad. Like, I’m an emotional person. I really, like, I love all those people over there, like the staff, like the medical staff, the coaching staff. The teammates, like, those are like my brothers. I really looked up to a lot of ’em and hung out with all of ’em. It’s sad that you don’t see ’em every day.”
At a press conference the day after the trade deadline, Morey referred to as McCain “a great future bet and a potential great player,” but additionally stated that he thought the group was “selling high” and was higher off with the draft picks, which he described as greater than a typical return for a starter-level participant on a superb group. Morey’s transparency solely amplified the dialogue across the deal, which principally boiled down to how to correctly worth a participant who was about to flip 22.
“It’s really weird sometimes, like, hearing people talk about what you’re ‘worth,'” McCain stated. “And it’s because I’m really, you know — there’s a human aspect to it that a lot of people skip over. So hearing stuff that he said in the media, it’s like, ‘Damn. Is that how you really felt?’ ‘Cause I feel like I treated everybody with respect and love. So it’s definitely tough to hear sometimes, but you gotta understand it’s a business and they’re doing what they feel is best.”
McCain described the commerce as unhappy, bizarre and emotional, however the whirlwind of all of it may also be humorous. He remembers being “kicked off” Philadelphia’s team-run group chat “pretty immediately.” He wanted Gilgeous-Alexander’s assist to get into the apply facility in Oklahoma City as a result of he wasn’t arrange within the safety system but, as documented on his vlog. He thinks he nonetheless has a couple of black jerseys within the Sixers’ apply facility. At some level, he’ll put away a bunch of Philly gear in his new attic.
“I just moved into my new place and I don’t even know where stuff is right now,” McCain stated. “My mom moved me in. I’m going back to the house for the first time. This will be the first time, tonight, when we get back. It’s a lot of stuff that’s very humorous.”
Right after the commerce, Kyle Lowry advised McCain, “This is supposed to happen.” Seventeen years in the past, the Memphis Grizzlies traded Lowry to the Houston Rockets for a first-round choose, having drafted Mike Conley to play his place the earlier summer time. (Ironically, Morey was the customer in that transaction.)
“He knows how hard I work, and he just told me, ‘Go do your thing,'” McCain stated. “And he’s always there for me if I need him. Really, anybody on that team, like, if I call ’em, I know they’ll be there: Tyrese, Jo, PG, VJ. All of ’em, man. They really helped me. And VJ just called me like two days ago to just talk.”
McCain is trying ahead to taking part in towards his former group in Philadelphia on March 23. “I love Philly to death,” he stated, “and I’m excited to go back in later March, just to feel the vibes and see all the people again and just say a proper goodbye.”
Right now, although, he is doing his greatest to keep current with the Thunder. “When you take a step back and just kind of look at everything going on, it’s all for good,” he stated. “It’s all going to be positive and work out for me.” He’s nonetheless getting himself located in OKC, however he could not be extra comfy with how issues are going.
“I’ve loved every moment of it,” McCain stated.
