Daryl Morey says Sixers had first round pick Jared McCain as 'Top 10 player' in NBA Draft

Jared McCain might’ve not lasted to the Sixers in the 2024 NBA Draft if the board looked like Philadelphia’s ratings.

The Duke guard fell to the 76ers at No. 16 in Wednesday night’s first round and GM Daryl Morey was glad it happened. As far as the brass is concerned, McCain is going to be beloved in Philadelphia.

But, Morey wasn’t exactly sure if the former Blue Devil would be available at that spot in the middle of the first round.

“We were really sweating the pick right before us, actually,” Morey said jokingly, via NBC Sports Philadelphia. “Jared, he’s just been a winner everywhere. He’s going to be someone Philly loves. Pretty rare to get a combination of a guy that’s got some skills that will get him on the floor earlier, including shooting, but also with a lot of upside and on a very steep improvement curve, even at his time at Duke defensively. … 

“As everyone says, we were pretty surprised he was there. We were looking at a lot of scenarios with trade out, trade back, and they all sort of went away when Jared made it.” 

Jared McCain fell into Philadelphia’s lap in NBA Draft

Frankly, Philadelphia was lucky to land McCain outside of the lottery picks, according to Morey.

“We had McCain as a top-10 player in this draft,” Morey said. “We’ve got a lot of roster opportunity, so if you can get a player who is hopefully rotation-ready at a very young age … I don’t want to put pressure on him, but we think he’s got the improvement curve, he’s got the approach, he’s obviously got a skill that the coach will turn around on the bench and say, ‘Hey, I need that skill.’ 

“He can really punish people in transition, really rebound. … I don’t want to put any tough expectations on him, but we really think this guy’s going to be a 76er for a very long time like some of our recent draft picks.”

McCain averaged 14.3 points per game this past season, helping the Blue Devils to the Elite 8. He was second on the team in scoring and third in rebounding at 5 per game. McCain is also an excellent shooter, knocking down 41.4 percent of his 3-point attempts and 88.5 percent of his free throws. His efforts in 2023-24 earned him a spot on the ACC All-Rookie Team.

During four NCAA Tournament games, he averaged 21 points where he surpassed the 30-point threshold twice before falling one game short of a Final Four during his lone college season. Coming out of high school, McCain was a consensus five-star recruit, according to the On3 Industry Rankings, a proprietary algorithm that compiles ratings and rankings from all four primary recruiting media services. He was the No. 11 overall player in the country and the No. 3 shooting guard in his class.