Sports
Mac McClung: 'My Agent Is Talking to Some Teams' About Contract in NBA Free Agency – Bleacher Report
Mac McClung remains a free agent after spending the 2022-23 campaign with the Philadelphia 76ers organization, and he’s hoping to secure an NBA deal for 2023-24 instead of a two-way contract.
“We’ll see,” McClung said of his situation, per Heavy’s Sean Deveney. “I am in free agency right now, my agent is talking to some teams, back and forth. We’re just trying to evaluate what is the best situation for me. Hopefully, I will be in the NBA next year and finding my way.”
McClung went undrafted in 2021 out of Texas Tech and he spent the 2021-22 campaign split between the Los Angeles Lakers and Chicago Bulls. He appeared in just one game for each franchise and spent much of the season with the G League’s South Bay Lakers.
In 27 games in the G League during the 2021-22 season, McClung averaged 21.5 points, 6.7 rebounds and 7.5 assists while shooting 47.0 percent from the floor and 37.5 percent from deep en route to being named the G League Rookie of the Year.
McClung signed a two-way contract with the 76ers ahead of the 2022-23 season and he spent much of the year with the Delaware Bluecoats, the club’s G League affiliate. In 31 games, he averaged 19.8 points, 2.7 rebounds and 4.9 assists while shooting 55.0 percent from the floor and 47.4 percent from deep.
The 24-year-old played just two games for the Sixers last season—averaging 12.5 points—but he did compete in the NBA’s Slam Dunk Contest at All-Star weekend, claiming the title of slam dunk king with an electric performance. He became the first G League player to ever win the NBA event.
While McClung is hoping for an NBA opportunity, he also told Deveney that he would be open to playing overseas if it would help him achieve his goal of becoming a full-time NBA player.
“It’s not that I don’t want to go overseas, it’s that my goal is to play in the NBA,” McClung said. “If it takes going overseas to do that, to put me in that situation, that is what I’ll do. I felt like last year, my gut was telling me not to go. Anything can change. I’m not knocking anything out. That was kind of a last-year thing, me feeling that way. I have nothing against overseas.”
There’s still plenty of summer left, and it’s reasonable to believe McClung will find himself an opportunity once more of the league’s big names come off the board, such as trade candidates James Harden and Damian Lillard.