What Happens With T.J. McConnell When Marshall Comes Back

T.J. McConnell of the Philadelphia 76ers is having himself a huge year. His rookie season couldn’t have gotten off to a better start, well, that is, for an un-drafted rookie. Although McConnell would have liked to have been drafted, he had to work his way onto an NBA squad via hard work in the offseason, but in a way, maybe that’s what’s motivated him. Maybe going un-drafted was the best thing to ever happen to the youngster.

McConnell hails from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, not too far from Philadelphia compared to Arizona, where he spent his years in college. His Twitter handle still shows that, not yet changed from @iPass4Zona.

McConnell has inserted himself as a name in the conversation alongside point guard greats like Chris Paul and Stephen Curry with his masterful passing. He had a huge breakout game with 12 assists and zero turnovers, and followed that up in the next game (which was his first career start) with 12 more assists. Since then, he has kept it going, and enough for him to bring up his assists per game to 6.9 and good enough to have him rated at seventh in the league in total assists. Not in the East, not on the Sixers, in the entire league.

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McConnell has said that he’s excited about getting mentioned in the conversation with some big name players.

“I can’t believe to be in the same sentence as those guys. It’s an honor because they represent what this league is about.” McConnell said.

Before the season began, fans expected others to be doing big things at the point guard spot. Kendall Marshall, at one point, had made himself a name on the assist leaderboard, but injuries have sidelined him and kept him from keeping his name in the conversation. He is expected to be back to full strength soon, as early as the end of November. While fans would have been really excited about this before the season started, since McConnell has really started to come onto the scene, they’re struggling to find reason to get all that excited about Marshall.

In fact, there seems to be an odd fear that Marshall will come back and take what T.J. has earned. Admittedly, I want McConnell to stay, and I want to see Marshall backing him, not starting. But I too have a fear that won’t be the case.

Don’t get me wrong, McConnell has at least a month more to work with and prove himself. Putting a player recovering from an ACL injury right into the lineup right away would not be smart, and Brett Brown won’t do that. Marshall is going to have to work up to a starting role (both in health and skill) if he is to get one.

If Marshall plays great, he’s going to start. Heck, if he plays at T.J.’s level, he might even win the starting job for the rest of the season. I think the starting job is completely McConnell’s to lose.

So what happens when Marshall comes back? Well, he will likely work his way up to a starting position, or near a starting position. There will definitely be a battle between the two for the starting spot. We already know both can facilitate the ball, but both have had issues scoring at a high level. McConnell already showed on Monday that he can score, finishing the game with 13 points, a career high, but he’ll have to do more.

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Looking ahead even further, I think here’s how things shape up for the backcourt when Tony Wroten comes back too:

• Phil Pressey gets released by the Sixers
• T.J. McConnell channels motivation from the threat of Kendall Marshall taking his job, and gets the starting job.
• Kendall Marshall is a solid second-unit point guard for the Sixers.
• Tony Wroten starts at shooting guard with Isaiah Canaan running with the second-unit alongside Marshall.

We teased this article Tuesday evening, and one of our readers pulled out a flaw in the way I have things running down.

I definitely see Sean’s point, as clogging up the key would be dangerous and would make things not work like they are supposed to for Jahlil Okafor and Nerlens Noel, but at the same time, I think there’s value in putting your best lineup forward, and Canaan–although a decent outside shooter–has shown starting him is not a good idea. Nik Stauskas clearly is having perimeter shooting issues too (shooting below 30% from beyond the arc), so we can’t count on him.

Although I understand that there is strategy in how a coach sets their starting lineup, my mentality (with the current state of the Sixers and all of their losses) is that you put your best players on the floor, and as of right now, the best backcourt is Wroten and McConnell.

Is it ideal that McConnell could shoot threes? Yes, and I hope he steps forward and becomes a shooter and a passer. But for now, he’s a great facilitator, and we can only hope he still finds a place on this team, even when Kendall Marshall comes back.