Mac McClung hasn’t been on an NBA roster since October, but the 25-year-old won a second straight Slam Dunk contest in February and has now earned another notable honor: McClung is this season’s NBA G League Most Valuable Player, the league announced today (Twitter link).
McClung spent the 2023/24 season playing for the Osceola Magic, Orlando’s NBAGL affiliate. In 27 regular season games, he averaged a league-high 25.7 points to go along with 6.6 assists, and 4.7 rebounds in 35.4 minutes per contest, with a shooting line of .509/.396/.843. Osceola finished as the No. 1 seed in the East at 22-12 and will face the Long Island Nets on Friday in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.
McClung also appeared in 14 Showcase Cup games for the Magic’s G League team earlier this season, averaging 25.2 PPG, 6.4 APG, and 4.3 RPG on .464/.357/.851 shooting.
McClung has only appeared in four career NBA games since going undrafted out of Texas Tech in 2021. However, he has made a name himself as a Slam Dunk champion and has had stints with some of the league’s marquee franchises, including the Lakers, Sixers, and Bulls.
McClung’s G League MVP award is also the latest addition to an increasingly decorated NBAGL résumé — he was the G League’s Rookie of the Year in 2022 and won a title with the Delaware Blue Coats in 2023.
Sioux Falls Skyforce guard Alondes Williams, who is on a two-way contract with the Heat, was the runner-up in the NBAGL MVP vote, which was conducted by the league’s 31 head coaches and GMs.
The third-place finisher was forward Kenneth Lofton Jr., who played for the Grizzlies and Sixers earlier this season and is now a member of the Jazz. He suited up for the Memphis Hustle in the Showcase Cup and the Blue Coats and Salt Lake City Stars during the G League’s regular season.
Somebody give this dude a shot.
If you read the article he has been given shots with some of the league’s marquee franchises, as well as the Sixers
4 games with 3 teams hardly qualifies as a real shot.
He’s had entire training camps the last several years has he not? Not sure why people on this website Who comment can’t see the guy is not an NBA player. G League All-Star and MVP does not Translate in this case.
Don’t really agree. He’s had training camp shots with the Lakers, Warriors, Bulls, Sixers, and Magic. Of those, only the Bulls didn’t have a glut of players at the guard spots at the time. And the Bulls aren’t known for good decision-making in that regard.
Memphis, Houston, Brooklyn, Utah, San Antonio? Places where a backup guard might actually have a shot to play this year or in seasons past? Crickets.
Granted, his passing doesn’t look great. He can score off the dribble and is a good shooter, but he can’t really run plays all that well. Turns over the ball on bad passes pretty often. But even then, a crap-tier team like San Antonio or Memphis (this season) doesn’t have even the slightest bit of interest? Baffling.
WRT his passing:
His ast/To ratio is just under 2/4 in his G league career, slightly over 2 this season
Backup PGs with worse passing and shooting stats: Cole Anthony, Scoot Henderson, Banton, Branham, Flynn, Hyland, Black
He’s an AAU star, and that’s what he’s been going off of. Wasn’t a top college recruit, not a player NBA teams got excited about, and couldn’t handle the NBA talent, speed, and physicality. G-League he’s up against those more so at his level.
But he can jump with the best of them!
I agree. There are definitely worse backup PGs on NBA rosters like the Suns and Spurs.
Why hasn’t someone given him at least a 10-day?
He’s had multiple 10-day deals.
Maybe he should go to Europe
Well I have to hand it to him he’s not giving up his dream of an NBA career. He can go to Europe when he’s 30 or China like Jimmer fredette. You give it your best NBA shot first then you can always go overseas later.
His agent, Dan Poneman, is a Chicago guy, and actually got his start with me. Being honest, in today’s NBA that is part of McClung’s problem. McClung and Poneman are homies, McClung is his only NBA client. Dan does not have a big book of clients to leverage other teams with for McClung. Thus, he lives the occasional 10-day contract life as a G-Leaguer scooping up some extra bucks as somewhat of a marketing gimmick. The money in the NBA has gotten so big that the overwelming majority of players are represented by pretty much 3 or 4 guys. They have the leverage with teams. Rich Paul or Mark Bartelstein would have no problem getting him a 1-year contract. Teams know they are just gonna throw it into a trade to make the money work, and the other team will then cut him. In exchange, they hope to get help with a client they actually want.
When Rich Paul calls the other NBA teams and tells them not to draft Bronny ….. They will absolutely NOT draft Bronny. …. Bronny is going to the draft. He hasn’t even to return the call from the new USC coach.
Thank you for this insight. It helps to understand what’s going on behind the scenes.
Just another sign that the system needs to be replaced…
A handful of agents decided who people get to pick from is very similar to an election process… Where a handful of uber rich people decide who is blue and who is red…
This guy just has a bad agent or is not seen as a legit NBA player. Not everything has to be a conspiracy, nothing is stopping him from getting a better agent.
LOL @Barry still pretending he is affiliated with the league, and/or has some insight into the inner workings of the NBA. The only thing this clown is good for is a laugh.
Mac is an undersized SG trying to play PG. He also has yet to shed his “social media” label. He has had lots of opportunities to stick with an NBA team, and has thus far failed.
I’ve been to lots of G league games in Santa Cruz, the talent is not good. High school games are typically better, and have better players, not to mention better facilities. The fact that Mac is lighting up the G league is not an indicator of future NBA success.
Mac would be a good PG on a team like the suns, where the traditional point guard duties are already handled by other positions.
Agents have nothing to do with guys getting a shot. Agents are essentially meaningless these days, outside of top end talant manipulating “team ups” between stars. Agents are essentially car dealers, worthless middlemen taking a cut from those who actually produce something.
Curious why Mr. Triple Double, Jason Preston, wasn’t top 3?
Crazy that he couldn’t get a shot with the Magic who don’t have the deepest roster.
Probably because all they have are PGs lol. In all seriousness, they have a glut of guards, so prob why he was stuck in the NBAGL. Their top guys go like:
1. Jalen Suggs
2. Markelle Fultz
3. Cole Anthony
4. Gary Harris
5. Anthony Black
The Raps could def look at him to backup Quickley. He’s not a great passer, but he might look good catching those passes from Scottie B! Raps need all the help they can get in their rebuild.
Only Anthony and Black are listed as PGs, but both his shooting numbers and ast/TO ratio are better than those 2. Ofc, that won’t translate 1:1 in the NBA, but it does seem like he’s proven he’s a backup PG prospect at the very least.
He’s a combo guard with hops…
Kid has talent and could be a decent spark plug 6th man… Like a Jamal Crawford or Dlo…
There’s space in the league for his talents… Plenty of back up guards out there who would struggle to put up those numbers…
If his last name was James he would be in the NBA.
Almost no G league MVP has ever played legit NBA minutes but tons of G league players have made a big impact in the NBA. It should be obvious to all the conspiracy nuts that there is no correlation between G league MVP and NBA potential.
Wow this comment section is full of people who don’t understand the talent level of the G League. The MVP from the Euro league last year is struggling to earn 6 minutes off the bench on a team that desperately needs someone with his advertised skill set. The EuroLeague is miles ahead of the guys in the G leauge. Do the math.
And yet, Vasilije Micić, who also played Euro ball last year, has been doing well in Charlotte now that he’s actually playing. this is not a 1-1 proposition – not every Euro and not every G leaguer are the same.
The Euroleague isn’t ahead of anything. Talent wise they are on par with the G league. Only a handful of players have ever been able to make an impact in the NBA. In fact, if a player is good enough to be the NBA, they leave the Euroleague with the same haste as former G leaguers.
The fact that Europeans like watching inferior sports is not relevant to the discussion.
@Highwaymenace – this is a completely uninformed comment. The Osceola Magic would have no business being on the same court as Real Madrid. Be honest. Metro 92 – Wembanyama’s team last year – were not good enough to qualify for ANY level of European competition, and didn’t even win the French League. He also had Bilal Coulibaly and G-league stars like Tremont Waters and Justin James on his team with multiple Euro veterans.
Career G-Leaguers hardly make it in the NBA. Yes, some teams have their rookies without available playtime play G-league just so they can have some run, I don’t consider them actual “G-leaguers” because they are clearly on their own level whenever they play down. You have the most obscure NBA players like Marjon Beauchamp putting up 40 pt triple doubles.
This is way too black and white on “leaving with haste” to the NBA. There’s way more to it than that. Guys like Rudy Fernandez and Sergio Lull were plenty good enough to play in the NBA in their prime. But I would rather get paid like $3.5 mil to live in my home country, by my friends and family, play all the time, win championships, and be the man, versus make $6 mil to live in a foreign country by myself, be traded to cities like OKC and Charlotte without my consent, and play rotational minutes.
Pablo Prigioni came over to the NBA at 35 and played plenty well in the NBA. He could have come over whenever he wanted but did not for the reasons outlined above. Prigioni already accomplished everything he wanted. Vezenkov and especially Micic could have come over earlier as well. They both accomplished everything already in Euroleague and don’t have wife/kids, and get paid more so why not? Also note that the FIBA game and NBA game are different. If you are a shooter like Vezenkov, even just the ball is different. That has a huge impact on a shooter. NBA players don’t shoot as well from distance at the Olympics or FIBA either playing with a different ball.
@Highwaymenace – Euroleague teams like Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Olympiacos are huge, multi-sport clubs with a lot of money that want to make money by having a good product. If the G-league talent was on par with Euroleague, we would see a lot more Americans over on those teams. If the G-league is on par talent-wise, why would I ever play in the G-league and make under $100k salary when I can make an easy $1 million playing in Euroleague?
love the comment section on this… “why won’t anyone give him a shot” (someone points out he’s had tons of chances in the league)…. next comment “why won’t anyone give him a contract” (someone points out 5-6 teams have)….. Is this the new Tim Tebow? lol
Gleague guys don’t really play defense and all looking to shine.
Now NBA players don’t play that great of defense either, but they would basically force Mac to do things he is bad at. He has been given many chances he is not going to be given free lanes to dunk. He wouldn’t shoot those percentages and would need to be a PG.