Jared McCain’s rise up the rookie rankings has surprised everyone but himself.

The No. 16 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft has been the best player in his class by a mile, averaging 16.6 points per game on a sterling 46.2 percent shooting from the field and 40.0 percent from 3. He recently scored 20 points in seven straight games, a stretch that included a pair of 30-point performances.

Philadelphia’s season has been a disaster, but McCain is still making the 76ers an entertaining watch. It’s a tough living being a 6-2 guard in the league. He’s doing it by emulating the best of the best. 

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Jared McCain looks like the Stephen Curry of the 2024 NBA Draft class

McCain’s stats are Curry-like

Curry is the best NBA shooter of all time. There won’t be another player on his level for a long time, but McCain is the player in this class who resembles both his skill and playing style the most in this class.

That’s not an accident. In a preseason appearance on teammate Paul George’s podcast, McCain listed Curry as one of his player comps (along with other small guards Jalen Brunson and CJ McCollum). Curry’s shooting stats this season are in a league of their own, but McCain’s are not that far off.

McCain gets to his 3s in a similar way as Curry. He’s already become a master of Curry’s patented relocation 3s, getting off the ball and moving to a better shooting location on the perimeter before receiving a pass back and ripping off a triple. 

Even when McCain isn’t directly involved in a play, he keeps moving until he hunts out a pocket of space to shoot from.

All-Defensive guard Jalen Suggs doesn’t make many mistakes, but both he and the NBA cameraman didn’t think that there was any way McCain was still in this play:

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McCain is more than a 3-point shooter

McCain’s deep shooting opens up the rest of his game. He’s also dangerous as an in-between scorer, stopping on a dime to get to a nifty pull-up jumper. He’s hit an impressive 54 percent on those midrange looks, which is important because they set up his drives nicely. 

Given his height and mediocre athleticism, McCain must find a way to finish at the rim among the trees. He’s not shy about driving to the basket — his 9.0 drives per game outpace Curry’s 7.4. And while his 57 percent shooting at the rim is just so-so, his craft is fun to watch.

McCain uses the threat of that pull-up to set up a beautiful up-and-under counter. 

McCain’s game can be very herky-jerky. He finds windows by changing the timing and angle at which big men are used to contesting shots. His signature shot is a scoop layup that he can flip under the arms of surprised defenders, sneak in off his wrong hand and foot or flick in without ever bringing the ball down.

He takes another page out of Curry’s book with that technique.

None of those skills would necessarily stand on their own as elite, but McCain is a very smart scorer. He plays all those weapons off each other to make himself a much tougher cover than the sum of his bag. 

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McCain can punish teams as a passer

McCain isn’t on Curry’s level as a passer yet, but some of the reads are there. He’s audacious in where he places the ball, throwing it to where teammates will be rather than where they are.

McCain’s passing is made even better by his elite processing speed. He gets off the ball quickly to set off teammates, knowing ahead of time where the soft spots in the defense are. He always has eyes on the backside of a defense, sensing when the help can’t recover in time. He’s even shown great zip on his skip passes, punishing defenses when they load up on him. 

That defensive attention has started to increase as McCain has proven he can handle more of an offensive load. His efficiency and volume are at historic levels — he and Zion Williamson are the only rookies in Basketball-Reference’s database to average at least 15 points per game on 60 percent true shooting while using at least 27 percent of their team’s possessions. 

The scary thing is that this is only the tip of the iceberg for McCain. He’s 20 years old and began the season playing mop-up minutes. His first start of the year didn’t come until 11 games into the season. Despite that youth, he’s on a clear trajectory towards becoming an All-Star. A scoring package like his simply doesn’t come around all that often.

There is one distinction between Curry and McCain that we are already seeing. Fifteen years ago, Curry finished runner-up for Rookie of the Year to Tyreke Evans. We know what greatness from 3 looks like now, and voters won’t make the same mistake this time.