T.J. McConnell: Fighting Hard Is His Only Way

T.J. McConnell has been underestimated from the start of this season, but that’s when he does his best work.

T.J. McConnell has had to muscle his way into the NBA from the very beginning. Although he was highly credited for being a great passing point guard in college, no team called his name on draft night, and T.J. found himself without a team at the end of the draft. While this makes some players want to give up right away, that’s far from the impact it had on McConnell.

T.J. saw it as an opportunity to prove himself, and an opportunity for motivation. McConnell was picked up by the Philadelphia 76ers over the summer, and looked to make a mark on the team right away. In the Summer League with the Sixers, he wasn’t anything spectacular. He played over 20 minutes per game, but only averaged 5.2 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game. Many thought training camp would result in T.J. getting cut and leaving him without a team yet again, but that would not be the case.

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The Sixers brought McConnell into the preseason, and still his statistical impact wasn’t greatly impressive. Playing over 20 minutes, he scored 6.2 points, and dished out a fairly impressive 4.8 assists. Surely, fans thought, this was the end of the line for McConnell with the likes of Kendall Marshall, Tony Wroten, and even Isaiah Canaan ahead of him. But that would not be the case.

Something about McConnell made head coach Brett Brown and general manager Sam Hinkie like him enough to keep him on the team by the time the start of the season came around. McConnell has high energy, and is a fun player to be around. His locker room presence has to be great, and he seems to be uplifting to his teammates around him. While that certainly could have been a reason they kept him on the team, it was likely more of the fight inside him that they saw.

Having to overcome being undrafted and keep a smile on his face had to be hard for McConnell, but he did it. He kept a positive attitude and clearly wanted to be a part of the growing Sixers team despite there being little veteran presence to guide him in his young career. He fought for his spot on the team and won it, and there was some skepticism as to if he could live up to it, despite this being one of the lowliest teams in the league.

Live up to it he did. In his third NBA game, he had 12 assists and zero turnovers. In his next game–which also happened to be his first NBA start of his career–he had 12 more assists and just 1 turnover. He’s consistently moved the ball well, having between 5 and 9 assists 20 times this season. He’s had double digit assists 3 times. His assist percentage is seventh in the entire NBA, and first overall among all rookies, drafted or not. His defense is good too, especially on the ball. His steal percentage is sixth in the league, and again, first among all rookies.

Perhaps another road block he has had to fight through has been the return of Sixers guard Ish Smith, who was a member of the team last year. Smith is undoubtedly a more developed, more polished, and more talented player than McConnell, and T.J. understands that, and uses it as motivation for himself. Again, he doesn’t hang his head and get upset that his starting job was taken from him by Ish, he keeps his high energy throughout the game both on the bench and on the court.

Smith is one of the six players ahead of McConnell in assist percentage in the NBA leaderboards.

T.J. finally had a chance on Saturday night to show what he really was worth to this team, and what he has learned watching Ish Smith from the bench and on the floor. For the first time since being traded to the Sixers, Smith sat with a sprained ankle, and McConnell got his first start since December 13th. McConnell went on to log nearly 30 minutes, putting up an impressive stat line with 17 points (matching a career high), 6 assists, 2 steals, and 0 turnovers.

McConnell is on the floor every night fighting for a win for the team. He plays hard, aggressive, and arguably annoying full-court defense, but he doesn’t show signs of weariness often by the ends of games. Saturday in the team’s win over the Nets, McConnell had a pivotal steal towards the end of the game, and was one of the key components in wrapping up the win, despite playing 30 minutes. And of course, let’s not overlook the fact that Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor played their best co-existing game all season with McConnell running the show.

Oh, and among his fight, he is the only player left on the Sixers roster that has yet to miss a game. He wants to be the plug.

Speaking to Brian Seltzer, he said, “I’m just trying to play hard.  I’m not really looking to be tough, but I’m just trying to play hard and spark our team any way I can.”

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McConnell hasn’t had things handed to him in this league so far, and the chances are that he never will have anything handed to him. But that’s just fine for T.J., because fighting for what he earns is all he knows how to do.