Mac McClung signs with 76ers

After delighting fans of the Golden State Warriors, Texas Tech, and Riff Raff with his rim-rocking dunks and AND1 dribble moves during Summer League and the preseason, Mac McClung is heading to...Delaware.

Yes, the Philadelphia 76ers have swooped in with an Exhibit 10 contract for our dear. sweet dunking boy Mac. The Sixers are loaded at point guard with Tyrese Maxey, Shake Milton, and DeAnthony Melton - plus James Harden wants to dribble the ball all the time anyway.

McClung was the G League Rookie of the Year last season, playing for the South Bay Lakers, where he averaged 21.7 points, 7.6 assists, 6.6 rebounds and 1.4 steals. He played for the Chicago Bulls on a ten-day hardship contract, before joining the Lakers for the final game of the regular season, where he delivered a month’s worth of highlights.

An Exhibit 10 deal is a non-guaranteed player contract that can be converted to a two-way deal before the season begins. It also generally includes a bonus above the standard G League contract, should the player stay with the club more than 60 days. It’s a way for a team to financially incentivize a player they like to join their G Leaue team.

This is how the Warriors locked in Quindarry Weatherspoon last season, signing him to an Exhibit 10 deal in the preseason before giving him a two-way deal in January. The Warriors could have done this with McClung as well, but they released him last week after signing point guard Ty Jerome to an Exhibit 10 deal of his own. Steve Kerr said the team wanted a “pass-first point guard,” and McClung is technically a dunk-first point guard.

With point guard Lester Quiñones already on a two-way deal and Jerome likely headed to the Santa Cruz Warriors, there simply wasn’t going to be playing time for McClung, who should be one of the better players in the G League next year. Just look at how cool he was in Summer League!

You don’t buy a Ferrari just to to keep it in the garage. Mac will be happier quarterbacking the Delaware Blue Coats and giving the people of Delaware something, anything to distract them from having to live in Delaware, a place so boring it’s called “The First State.” Wow, congratulations on signing your paperwork early 200 years ago, Delaware. But maybe he’ll get to meet Delaware’s favorite son Joe Biden, if he becomes the first US President to attend a G League game.

Goodbye, Mac McClung. He might get to follow in the footsteps of fellow undrafted Caucasian sensation, point guard TJ McConnell, and work his way onto the Sixers roster, but until then, Warriors fans will have our memories.