Jared McCain Joins Former Blue Devil in Latest NBA Mock Draft

The 2024 NBA Draft is still 10 days away but that hasn’t stopped teams across the league from working out multiple draft prospects. One prospect who has received a ton of buzz during the draft cycle is former Duke guard Jared McCain.

McCain had an excellent freshman campaign this season with the Blue Devils, where he scored 14.3 points per game on 46.2 percent shooting from the field and 41.4 percent from beyond the arc.

The former Blue Devil star could be drafted in the latter half of the lottery or selected by a playoff team in the first round. In Jonathan Wasserman’s latest mock draft on Bleacher Report, he has McCain teaming up with former Duke star Paolo Banchero and the Orlando Magic with the No. 18 overall pick.

At first glance, the idea of the Magic drafting McCain doesn’t make sense, given the number of guards that they have on their roster. However, there could be minutes available for McCain as Markelle Fultz and Gary Harris are both undrafted free agents.

Wasserman originally had McCain being selected with the 15th overall pick in his Jun. 7 mock draft, but has him dropping three spots to the Magic. Here’s his breakdown below:

"“Jared McCain put on some impressive shooting displays during drills at the combine, showing textbook repetition of form. Shotmaking has and will always be what powers his offense and value, but McCain's effectiveness this year in ball-screen situations, using change of speed, footwork, crafty finishing and vision, point to more on-ball upside with his creativity and feel.”"

This season, the Magic were ranked 24th in three-point shooting (35.2 percent) and 29th in three-point attempts per game (31.3). McCain would be the perfect option for Orlando’s offense as he should be able to play alongside Banchero, Franz Wagner, and Jalen Suggs, who look to be the team’s future core.

Nevertheless, we still have some time to go until the first round of the draft, so it will be fun to see where the mock drafts will have McCain going as he has a bright future ahead of him.

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