The Oklahoma City Thunder are expected to make a Jared McCain-like trade this season, targeting a cost-controlled young player on a rookie deal rather than a high-salary star. This comes after the team suffered horrific injury luck with the setbacks on Jalen Williams, Cason Williams, Chet Holmgren and Alex Caruso.
ClutchPoints insider Brett Siegel reported on the Clutch Scoops podcast that general manager Sam Presti will likely look around the edges of the roster with draft assets, similarly to how OKC acquired McCain from the Philadelphia 76ers using surplus first- and second-round picks.
“At some point this season, the Thunder are going to make at least one trade. That’s a given,” Siegel said. “We know that Sam Presti is always very advantageous on the trade market. We didn’t think that they were going to make a trade last season, and then Jared McCain fell in their laps because they leveraged some draft picks — first-round and second-round picks that weren’t going to be of use to them. We could see something similar happen this year where it’s not going to be a big splashy name, a 20+ million dollar guy.”
In that previous deadline deal with the 76ers, the front office leveraged an abundance of draft capital to absorb a talented young player on a highly controllable rookie-scale contract.
In exchange for McCain, the 76ers received a package of draft capital consisting of a 2026 first-round pick (via the Houston Rockets) and three future second-round picks.
Siegel suggested the franchise could replicate this formula by dangling their own young assets on rookie deals, specifically naming Nikola Topic and Thomas Sorber, to round out the roster edges.
“Maybe they look to get [Topic] on the court when he’s healthy for a month or a month and a half just to showcase him to other teams,” Siegel said. “And the same thing can be said about Thomas Sorber, a center that has yet to play for the Thunder. Two guys that are on rookie deals.”
A potential target already circulating in league circles is Sacramento Kings wing Nique Clifford, a cheap depth option who has fallen out of rotation but fits the exact profile of Presti’s opportunistic, value-driven trading style.
Notably, the Thunder declined Topic’s $7.4 million contract option for the 2027–28 season. By making this decision ahead of the November 2 deadline, the 21-year-old Serbian point guard is now scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent next summer.
The 12th overall pick in the 2024 NBA draft has been limited to just 10 total games over his first three seasons. After missing his rookie year with a torn ACL, he bravely battled testicular cancer and completed chemotherapy during the 2025–26 season. He is currently sidelined with no timetable to return following back surgery in June.
Aside from Topic and Sorber, Siegel also named Jared McCain as a potential trade piece.
“We talked about Nikola Topic and Thomas Sorber being those main trade assets that the Thunder could basically use as draft picks in a sense because they’re fresh in terms of their NBA experience,” he said. “I’d even venture to throw Jared McCain in there as being a trade piece.”
“Jared McCain, I don’t necessarily know if they can afford to keep him, and that’s why I throw him in that category of, hey, he could be a potential trade piece next to Nikola Topic and Thomas Sorber.”
The Thunder signed Ochai Agbaji but later backpedaled on their decision. Right now, it is unclear how the Thunder would deal with a shorthanded roster for the rest of the season.
Rob Andrew Lo Rob Andrew Lo is a writer at Heavy Sports and is covering the NBA. He has covered local, collegiate, professional and international sports in various sites. He was the sports editor of The Varsitarian, the official student publication of University of Santo Tomas, and a sports, entertainment, and lifestyle writer for Rappler. A Journalism graduate from the University of Santo Tomas, he has built his voice across both collegiate and international platforms, previously contributing NBA coverage to Fansided and Sportskeeda. More about Rob Andrew Lo
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OKC Thunder Set For Jared McCain-Like Trade, Insider Says – Heavy.com
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