Jared McCain Update

Now that the NBA Playoffs have ended, attention turns to the draft, which is coming up fast on June 26th.

This is going to be a strange one with one of the weaker group of prospects seen in years. Some people have suggested that having the first pick could get someone fired because no matter who you pick, it could end up looking really bad.

But of course that pick could be traded. The gamesmanship around the draft is one of the more fun points of the whole enterprise.

One of the more intriguing prospects is Duke’s Jared McCain. Our line for him is that he’s a mix of Kobe Bryant and Jose Alvarado. That’s not to suggest he’s as talented as Bryant; he’s not. But he has his work ethic and the gym rat mentality of Alvarado.

In this draft, there’s really no way to tell where he’ll go. We’re sure several teams have him on their list if he’s still around when they pick but who knows when he’ll go?

McCain poses a dilemma for teams: he has a two guard’s game but a point guard’s body.

He’s a beautiful shooter, as we saw at Duke this year, but he is 6-3 and he’s not blindingly athletic.

That doesn’t necessarily matter though. There are plenty of guys who have played in the NBA despite not being hugely athletic, starting with Larry Bird, but you can rattle off quite a few without thinking too hard: Mark Price, Steve Kerr and Rick Mahorn among them.

When he came out of Duke in 2011, one of the concerns about Kyrie Irving was that he wasn’t overly athletic and he turned out okay. They said the same about RJ Barrett and he’s carved out a nice career. You could argue that Paolo Banchero isn’t the world’s greatest athlete too, but what does it matter? All he does is kill you.

You can run faster and jump higher than anyone and some guy who is far less talented can filet you with a smart pass or just understanding how a play is developing and getting in the right spot to change that.

We forgot one other guy who comes up in this conversation a lot – Shane Battier. He knew he wasn’t the greatest athlete, but he managed to outsmart far more talented players. He was called the no-stats All-Star for a reason.

McCain is going to be underestimated for a while. Then people will begin to appreciate his effort and his intelligence. We’re not comparing him to Jrue Holiday, but if you watched Game 5, you saw him making plays all over the court. That’s the sort of thing McCain can do. He basically saved Duke’s game against Clemson this year with three late steals and there are aspects of his game we didn’t get to fully appreciate this past season. His basketball IQ is off the charts, and that, along with his work ethic, is what will help him to carve out a solid NBA career.