Et Tu T.J.?
To help out the analysis of the Sixers and the Hawks point guard situation, lets look at a basic stats table.
| Player | Mins | Pts/Gm | FG% | FT% | REB/gm | AST/gm | STL/gm |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ish Smith | 30.9 | 14.8 | 39.3% | 67.1% | 3.6 | 7.3 | 1.5 |
| T.J.McConnell | 20.4 | 6.2 | 47.5% | 56.7% | 3.4 | 4.7 | 1.9 |
| Dennis Schroder | 20.8 | 11.1 | 42.4% | 79.0% | 2.9 | 4.6 | 0.9 |
| Jeff Teague | 28.5 | 15.1 | 43.5% | 83.4% | 2.6 | 5.6 | 1.3 |
There were twenty guards selected in the 2015 NBA draft. Twenty of the sixty or a true one third of the players drafted were guards. T.J.McConnell was not drafted, but rather was given a chance to compete on this team. While his maturation has taken its time, he’s proving to be ahead of his peers… all of them… in several key areas critical for the point guard position. The point guard position is truly a sophomore role in the NBA. The pressure of running the team combined simultaneously with learning the speed of the game, the skills of teammates, and training oneself is an awfully steep climb for any single individual to make.
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Beginning the 2015-2016 season, the Philadelphia 76ers loaded up the roster with a myriad of point guard talent. Pierre Jackson, Kendall Marshall, Tony Wroten, Phil Pressey, Isaiah Canaan, Scottie Wilbekin, T.J. McConnell all were given a look. Of that group, only McConnell, Canaan, and Marshall remain. Marshall disappeared onto the bench, and Canaan has morphed into a sixth man shooting guard with a perimeter shot.
If the Sixers have a long term plan for the team, they seem to have omitted the scheme for the point guard position – one of the most critical spots on the team. Tossing bodies onto the basketball court hardly seems like a successful path to a championship team. Even when one player emerges with potential, the team trades for a veteran, and has now determined that a third year veteran reserve on another team is worth a boat load of assets, while their own undrafted rookie continues to do whatever is asked of him.
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