Phildelphia 76ers TJ McConnell Plays With The Eye Of The Tiger

Practice Makes Perfect, Or Good Enough To Start

With the qualities of a point guard mentality housed in a prospect who had virtually no NBA experience, Brett Brown made the only choice possible in his role of player development. He began to start T.J. McConnell.

In the 2015 NBA draft, the Philadelphia 76ers were projected to pick up point guard D’Angelo Russell but were prevented from doing so when the Los Angeles Lakers drafted him as the second pick in the 2015 NBA draft.  Despite the opportunity to draft a quality player in Jahlil Okafor at the third pick, the draft felt incomplete.   The expectation was that the team would be able to bolster it’s back court in the draft.  Instead, fates decreed that the front court would get even richer.

But with an emergence of McConnell, the team now had a true point guard to develop and nurture as the overall team grew together.  The Sixers seemed to have found a point guard prospect, and enriched their front court in the off-season.   In a solid piece from November 2015, The Sixer Sense —Josh Wilson described the evolution of McConnell as he portrayed the spirit of the player:

"McConnell has a mindset to move the ball. Heck, his Twitter handle is @iPass4Zona. In the 13 games played so far, McConnell has had three games with 5-9 assists, and four more with 10-14. Three times, he has had huge games with 12 or more assists. Several more times, he has had near 10 assists, and on a regular basis you can count on T.J. for five or so assists, and generally more. McConnell brings the ball down the floor with his eyes up, always looking to feed his teammates. It helps that he has a great scoring weapon in Jahlil Okafor to fall back on, but he seems to always have an idea of where the best placement of the ball is. While his performance is great in the context of the Sixers, looking at the context of the league, he’s also making a name for himself on the leaderboards. McConnell is sitting at ninth in the league in total assists, and in assists per game. Some are comparing him to Ish Smith, who was a Sixer last year that was not brought back during the offseason, and now plays for the New Orleans Pelicans. Ish sits higher up than T.J., currently fourth in the league. While Ish is certainly missed, T.J. is easing the process. Something that Ish seems to do a lot better than T.J. McConnell is knowing when to be selfless, and when to be selfish. I paid attention to his game Wednesday night against the Thunder, and his ability to drive in the lane and score was great, and paired with his passing ability, he really has started to make himself a leader on the Pelicans. – Josh Wilson"

The Sixer Sense gets noticed. Perhaps it was this article which prompted a series of events, events which led to bringing on Jerry Colangelo, who led to bringing on Mike D’Antoni, who subsequently triggered pursuit of a veteran point guard who had recent history with the Philadelphia 76ers: Ish Smith.

Next: McConnell Meets Smith