Revealing a long-standing admiration for the sharpshooter’s high basketball IQ, Sam Presti explains how the midseason addition bolsters the roster while strategically preserving the team’s long-term financial flexibility.
Sam Presti touched on a wide variety of topics in his end of season press conference on Monday morning in Oklahoma City.
One of those subjects was the deadline move of trading with the Philadelphia 76ers for sharpshooting sophomore Jared McCain. The 3 point marksman with a big personality and a permanent smile became an instant fan favorite both on and off the court. It turns out McCain has had a fan in Presti for quite a long time.
Q. At the deadline you guys acquired McCain. You mentioned trade machine. I don't think too many people had him pegged. What was your evaluation of getting him in here and how he handled the situation of jumping on a moving train and playing in the playoffs and looking pretty comfortable his first time out there?
Presti: Yeah, I followed Jared since he was in high school and have always thought very highly of him, just his makeup, his approach, his game. I've always felt like he's a guy that contributes to winning. I do think that with kind of the way he got on the train, as you were saying, his EQ is extremely high. There aren't many people that I would choose to try to assimilate into our particular team in the middle of the year, especially because the continuity issue was already very fractured because we didn't know who was playing, and there the thought of we could really use another person because every night we're kind of shorthanded. Certainly couldn't have forecasted the situation we were going to be in in the postseason. He was very, very helpful in that. But he had the right mindset, I think, to walk into a team like ours and in the right game.
The Thunder General Manager believes McCain is more than just a 3 point specialist. And it's clear OKC is approaching next season as an opportunity for the former Duke Blue Devil to showcase more of his all around game in Mark Daigneault's rotation.
"I think going forward there's a more balanced player in there and not just a guy that's going to come off and be able to hit shots like that. He really understands the game. He understands winning. He'll put his body out there. I'm looking forward to a full summer with him, full training camp, and just seeing really how he accents our full team. I don't know how many games he played with Jalen, but I don't think it was very many. With our starters, he would have had to be here for one of those eight games, so I'm not sure if he was or he wasn't."
Presti closed his thoughts on the McCain deal by revealing yet another positive takeaway that may have flown under the radar.
"The other thing about that transaction is we were able to orchestrate that without going to luxury tax, which is a big factor because now we continue to maintain the fact we won't be a repeater tax, repeater team until we're in the new arena and we have a new CBA. So that was important for us to be able to follow that threshold but still be able to add a player of that caliber."
