Mock NBA expansion draft sends Jared McCain to Las Vegas

Bleacher Report's hypothetical two-team expansion exercise has the Thunder guard going first overall to a Las Vegas franchise.

Bleacher Report writers Dan Favale and Grant Hughes assembled a mock expansion draft built around two hypothetical new NBA clubs, one in Seattle and one in Las Vegas. Under the format, no existing franchise could lose more than one player, and each incoming roster needed a minimum of 14 players.

With the opening selection, the Las Vegas club took guard Jared McCain away from the Oklahoma City Thunder. McCain had come to Oklahoma City from the Philadelphia 76ers at the 2026 trade deadline and later delivered big scoring performances during the 2026 Western Conference Finals.

Bleacher Report called the 22-year-old, set to earn $4.4 million on a rookie-scale deal with two seasons remaining, too valuable to skip given his proven postseason scoring. The Thunder had made McCain available along with Jaylin Williams, Kenrich Williams, Nikola Topic, Thomas Sorber and Bennett Stirtz.

Any real expansion remains speculative. ESPN's Shams Charania has reported talk of a deal being completed in time for the 2028-29 season, which would put an actual expansion draft a couple of summers away, though nothing has been decided.