Oklahoma City Thunder GM Sam Presti had eyes for Jared McCain long before his mid-season trade with the Philadelphia 76ers. Ahead of the upcoming season, Presti predicts the 2026-27 Thunder will be better than its championship squad in 2025. And McCain is a significant part of his forecast for his team, which fell one victory short of returning to the NBA Finals.

As McCain enters his first training camp with the Thunder, Presti explained why he was so high on the 76ers' 2024 first-round pick during his preseason address.

“There is a very small collection of people — I mean, really small — that I would have done that with at the trade deadline; he was one of them,” Presti said. “He had the emotional intelligence, in my opinion, to walk into our environment and navigate that. But also, still play with confidence. And I think that's a really unique thing. Those are the rarities, I think, of high performers. One of the most underrated aspects of a player in the modern NBA is their self-awareness as a player, not just as a person.

“A self-aware player is essential to a mid-season acquisition, or really any acquisition of a team that's been together for a while. And Jared has that in an overflowing amount.”

Article Continues Below

Jared McCain connected on 41.1% of his 3-point attempts for the Thunder following his trade from the 76ers. However, Sam Presti believes fans will soon believe there's much more in McCain's bag than a consistent 3-point touch.

“I think starting with everybody at a baseline in a training camp like this is going to do him well because there's a lot more to him as a player, in my opinion, than just a guy that can come off, and rip off a bunch of threes,” Presti said. “I've watched him for a very long time, and he's a winning player. And he understands the things that drive winning, intangibly, with non-statistically, and I think he's a more balanced player than we got to see because he was trying to figure out how to fit in with the current group.

“There's a lot of discovery to be done. So, we'll just have to see what he looks like with this constellation of players, but he has absolutely improved, as have other guys on our team — Wallace, Mitchell, and all down the line. All these guys have gotten better because they're in their formative years as players, but I'm excited to see what he does with this particular group. And especially, he's never really played this much with Dub [Jalen Williams].”

For Presti, Jalen Williams is the “force multiplier” for the Thunder, which amplifies the team's intensity throughout the roster. And McCain, entering his third NBA season, should reap the benefits of playing alongside the Thunder's star forward who played in only 14 games following McCain's trade from the Sixers.