CAMDEN, N.J. — Philadelphia 76ers President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey and the front office had a questionable trade deadline in many ways. The Sixers only made two moves and it was to send Jared McCain to the Oklahoma City Thunder for picks and send Eric Gordon to the Memphis Grizzlies for a future second-round pick swap.
The McCain deal, especially, is peculiar. In just his second season, and coming off a serious meniscus injury, he’s averaging 6.6 points and shooting 38.5% from the floor and 37.8% from deep. The No. 16 pick of the 2024 NBA draft was certainly beginning to find a rhythm again toward the end of his tenure in Philadelphia, but the Sixers sent him to the Thunder in a deal that netted just the picks.
When considering the resurgence the Sixers are having in the 2025-26 season, led by a healthy Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey taking another step, it would make the most sense for Philadelphia to bring in more players rather than just get under the luxury tax. Morey explained that he did try to add by using the picks they received in the McCain deal, but nothing materialized leading to a quiet deadline.
Morey addressed the reasoning for the McCain deal and much more on Friday:
Morey on the McCain deal
“The big move was with Jared. Because we’re playing well, we were trying to upgrade the team and add to the team now. That was goal number one. Obviously, no deal materialized, including using the picks we got from the Jared deal. We were trying to—that’s why we did that move a little early. We’re trying to reuse those draft picks to add now. We do feel like this deal sets us up better in the future, but we understand that we’re looking to add now, and nothing materialized.”
On if he believes the Sixers are selling high on McCain
“I am quite confident we’re selling high. Obviously, time will tell, but the only other high point–and we weren’t looking to sell. I’ll be frank, like teams came to us with aggressive offers for him, and you could say, ‘Yeah, that’s because he’s a good player.’ I agree with that. We thought this return was above for the future value for a franchise with what we could get. So, the only higher point would have been during his run last season, but otherwise, we feel like we did time this well.”
On if getting a 2026 first round pick from the Thunder was the focus of the McCain deal
“So, that wasn’t the main focus. I think it’s a nice focus, because we do think this draft is a good draft, but we’re not necessarily using the pick in this draft. It could be used for moves around the draft, the three seconds that we got with it, we think could be used to move up in this draft. Obviously, I and our front office have done a lot of deals over the years, and this just gives us more tools to make the moves that we think will help our future more than we saw. Jared, who we gave up, but that’s not a comment on Jared. That’s just literally–we think, given our team, this was the right move to set us up down the road in a better way, and this core of this team is intact and will still win at the level they were going to win before the deadline. We just didn’t add.”
On if getting below the luxury tax was a consideration at the deadline
“Again, I would just reference for sure, if we had found an add, and we were going to end up higher, we would have ended up above it. We’ve done it several times when I was here. Over the history of ownership, they’ve done it many times. We didn’t see something that did that, and then we’re under the normal pressures that every team is doing the CBA with the first apron to sign (Dominick) Barlow to this deal, things like that.”
On support from the ownership group
“Yeah, that’s happened several times since I’ve been here. They’re completely supportive. I think they provide all the resources we can. Both David (Blitzer) and Josh (Harris) are very engaged and involved in a good way, asking good questions, things like that, and when we’re talking about, ‘Hey, here’s potential deals we could do’, it’s a trade-off. How much will they help? What are we having to get up? Where do we end up, relative to the CBA? All those things factor in, but they’re a tremendous support for us, and appropriately involved, is what I would say.”
On Philadelphia’s chances in the East post-deadline
“We like our chances in the East. We feel like we’re in the mix with the top teams there. Obviously, we got to prove that on the court, but yeah. I’m just reiterating, yeah, we were hoping to add and we didn’t add. But we still believe in this team. Like, it’s still the team that people believed in. Folks have speculated on the improvements of our East competitors. I don’t see it, personally. I think all the teams made moves at the deadline, but there weren’t any needle movers, in my opinion.”
This article originally appeared on Sixers Wire: Daryl Morey explains the Jared McCain deal, quiet deadline for Sixers
