Jared McCain (guard) Philadelphia 76ers | NBA Draft Analysis Ep2 | Duke
what’s up everybody welcome back to the sideline specialist NBA draft review series if you’re unfamiliar with the series I gave a brief overview in episode one I am Alex fishbine one half of the sideline specialist podcast my other half my other co-host Tom Dey is doing our own NFL draft review series also NHL draft review Series so you can check both of those out on our YouTube channel as well but we’re coming back to the NBA and for those that are unfamiliar as I was talking about before what we do is we go over a good old professional scouting report of whatever Prospect we’re doing for the episode we then bring up the highlights which we purposefully have not watched beforehand so that we react along with any of you watching and we try and see if we can see those types of strengths and weaknesses and sort of things in the game film itself so this this episode not this week sorry we’re talking about Jared McCain out of Duke and so we will bring up his scouting report right now now I’m not going to read through word for word this whole thing I took down some notes we’re going to start with the basics though he is a point guard SL combo Guard from duke he’s 6 fo2 200 pounds he is 20 years old as of right now and at Duke in his freshman season he played 36 games as you can see there he averaged 14.3 points per game five rebounds 1.9 assists 1.1 steals just 1.3 turnovers and he shot 46.2% from the field 41.4 from three and 88.5 from the free throw line now let’s just get something out of the way right now a lot of people’s um gripes with Jared McCain have nothing to do with his game on the court it has everything to do with the painted nails and the Tik toks that’s all everyone wants to talk about and quite frankly normally I save the cursing for the podcast but I don’t give a what he does in his free time if he is out there if he’s working on his game and he brings it onto the court and plays well for the team or at least just gives his all for the team that’s the bottom line who cares if he’s making Tik toks who cares if the guy paints his nails this is 2024 at this point mind your business watch him play basketball be a fan of the team if you don’t like what he does outside of the sport no one no one says you have to be a fan of him outside of basketball just watch the sport stop being that’s the biggest thing now let’s get to the strengths this guy is an elite shooter not just a good shooter not just a great shooter he’s been an elite shooter 42.1% of his threes or sorry shot 42.1% from three off of Catching shoot threes he’s very good in transition 37% on pull-up threes not too bad I talked about pull-up threes a lot with bub Carrington in in episode one of this series he he was one of the best in pull-up threes as well uh and McCain is one of the best all-around Shooters in general great coming off of screens great moving off ball solid rebounder especially for his size five rebounds a game for an undersized guard at only 6′ two solid he knows where that’s coming off for floorboards he knows how to get uh Rush down into the paint get in front of his man and get those boards he does a very good job at all of that he’s a deceleration change of speed type of player he’s not the eye popping Elite athlete that’s going to jump out of the gym or Blow by every single Defender that’s not his game he’s a lot in terms of finding his spots and getting open he is with the ball a lot like bub Carrington in the fact they know how to get a guy on their hip they know how to use a screen well they know how to get to the the spot in other ways that does not concern just blowing by using sheer athleticism um also always in control of the ball he always seems to be on balance he always seems to be have the the ball on a tight handle on a string and he has a very very high IQ when it comes to finding his spot finding his teammates so on and so forth now the weaknesses as I said not an elite athlete he’s not the vertical pop guy he’s not going to be throwing down dunks especially because he’s undersized he’s not going to be blowing by people constantly he’s not going to be doing any of that but he seems to be one of those people that knows hey I don’t have these tools I have to find different ways of getting what I need to get um his explosiveness like first step explosiveness is okay but in the NBA it’s you know okay is not good enough um he’s undersized he only has a 6 foot three and a half inch wingspan to go along with his 6 foot2 frame um sometimes the ball dip to get into a rhythm like into his rhythm shots tends to take a little long I know Sixers fans probably don’t like the sound of that when they they struggled to watch Tobias Harris struggled to get shoot shots off the there was plenty of other three point um Sharpshooters they’re supposed to be Sharpshooters that would do the same thing for um for the Sixers it seems so that seems to be a little bit uh of an issue 32.3% on threes off of screens that’s going to have to improve that needs to improve expeditiously because that is going to be primarily what the Sixers are going to want to do now he does move well off the ball he does hit threes at a pretty high clip off the catch so that is all working in his favor but there’s going to be times where either Maxi’s not on the floor and they use him as a a primary ball handler along with Paul George or even vice versa whatever it may be so they’re going to need him to improve on that because he’s going to be the three guy like the the guy who’s just taken Bunches of Threes that’s going to be Jared McCain with maxi and Paul George and Joel embiid he’s going to be a guy that should be able to get in dribble handoffs should be able to come off of pin downs and different screens and different actions to get that open shot and knock them down every time that’s going to be what Nick nurse is going to have him just constantly running around um the the first step and shaking Defenders without a screen or handoff does get a little iffy like like I said he’s not exactly shaking Defenders all the time it’s a lot of using his body well using his hip well keeping them on his hip so on and so forth so that’s going to be something to look for and so without further Ado let’s just get into some of the highlights here so we can see if we see what we heard in the scouting report on the highlights so we’re going to bring this on up I’ll go here shout out to Highlights 101 for the video here’s some of Jared M so again here like he wasn’t getting by his Defender he was using his body well using the Hop step right there he was able to create it move like use his forearm a little bit with the little push getting into the lane getting uh around a screen and then getting down to the rim in transition that was one of the ones that they did point out in strength that he is good in transition again right there it wasn’t like a blow by he used his body well got around the defender that you can see that first step isn’t super fast when he catches the ball but the pump fake is always a threat when you have a guy who can shoot like that those catch and shoot threes right there boom jab step hit that three cuz you know want part of your game to allow you to get to the other parts of your game so if you’re hitting threes like he is off the off the catch then the the first jab step is going to be lethal they they don’t know whether you’re jab step shot they don’t know whether it’s like jab step dribble step back or even just jab step go get you on your hip get him into the mid-range so there’s a lot of things he can do with that willing passer not I mean I know there was only 1.9 assist per per game but he’s still a willing passer in this um he can do it he just wasn’t much of the they didn’t need him to be the distributor that much oh yeah love to see that that he’s going to get plenty of that on Philly right there and see that’s part of what they want to see him get better at that was part of his weakness is um shooting off of the screen so and and and catching off of the screen so we’re going to see if he can get better at that now those jump step that those hop steps man with the in traffic when you’re using your body and you’re moving them along 200 lb a 6’2 is a solid frame so being able to move guys like that you got like Jaylen Brunson style Kyle Lowry style be able to move them out of the way because you’re not lightning quick like those are guys you you want to look at those are guys you want to model after those undersized guards that can use their body in those types of weights love to see the the willingness on defense the anticipation I mean that step backs right there ready to shoot Bam pocket up love to see that oo that’s a good little bounce pass yeah I don’t know how you’re going to let him that wide open oh we love that we love that little jab step spin get to the rim see these these exact plays though where he’s catching it in the corner right there using his body on the Baseline very good job using the IQ to shake one way go the other gets into the middle but what I was going to say is that these catch and shoots right here the ones in the corner the ones coming off a pin down even right here getting back into the lane after that that’s what he’s going to need to do a lot of infil this is exactly what Maxi and be have needed in their role players in the The Supporting Cast all of what he’s offering in these highlights is what they have needed especially with a backup guard or a you know somebody just alongside Maxi at the same time and then throwing the fact that you get Paul George and there’s a lot of upside there but these shots I mean they’re automatic the form is crisp we haven’t seen the ball dip too much because again with highlights you’re not going to see a lot of the weaknesses but we can see the one weakness in terms of athleticism like we see him not really blowing by somebody on the first step we see him not like you know dunking on anybody or anything in that regard but the good thing is he’s still getting to everywhere on the floor that he wants to get right there that’s going to be his big thing the the fact that he can get up that shot and then attack the close out def excuse me attack the close out Defender that’s going to be something that he regularly is going to need to do and I think that’s going to be the key to Jared McCain’s success I love this pick from the Sixers I think that a lot of again his strengths are exactly what the Sixers needed the only thing I’m a little worried about is if you’re going to be able to run McCain and Maxi together because McCain’s defense while like it wasn’t terrible at Duke he’s still undersized in the NBA that’s going to be a little bit of an issue and Maxi just started getting to be a better Defender because of the same issues except he’s more athletic so running them together at the same time you’re gonna have to have plenty of other defense on the floor embiid is an elite defensive Center Paul George has proven to be a great defensive Wing um I would say Elite but I’m kind of waiting to see like kind of if he regress whatever see how that goes uh and then you know the rest of it like Kelly o got a little bit better on defense especially in that Nick series when we saw him guarding people like Jaylen Brunson and so there those are the questions I really have especially because he doesn’t have this Elite athleticism he doesn’t have a crazy wingspan or anything like that but they did also draft another defensive player in ad Demona so we’re gonna have another episode on him after this as well but that’s it here for Jared McCain from duke if you guys like this content please drop a like below please comment let me know what uh Prospect you might want to see we’re we’re usually not going to be the ve do like the very top well-known guys because again you guys can see that anywhere on YouTube you can literally go to any channel and find those guys we want to talk about the guys that really aren’t getting talked about all that much um I wanted to do Jerry McCain I know he’s been out there plenty he’s on Duke because I’m like we’re both Sixers fans we’re both Philly fans here on the sideline specialist so but we’re going to get into Bona we’re going to I will talk about the number one pick because he seems to be one that a lot of people just don’t really know much about I’ll be very honest like I know a little bit about him just from what I’ve read but I haven’t seen much about him so we’re g to get into him as well and we got plenty more coming up probably not going to do every single Prospect so just bear with me let me know who you want to see Please Subscribe hit the Bell it let you know when we go live we usually go live once a week with our podcast as well which is all sports but with a little more focus on the NFL so appreciate it guys and I’ll catch you in the next episode Peace
Welcome back to the Sideline Specialists’ 2024 NBA Draft Review series. In episode 2, we’re taking a look at Duke’s starting freshman, Jared McCain, who was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers with the 16th overall pick. He’ll now slot in the backcourt as a three-point threat alongside Tyrese Maxey, Paul George, and Joel Embiid.
#philadelphia76ers #nbadraft #nbadraft2024
