Philadelphia 76ers: T.J. McConnell quietly having a good December

The Philadelphia 76ers have had a holiday blessing with T.J. McConnell playing very well for the club in the month of December.

December has been a disappointing month for the Philadelphia 76ers, especially in regards to the production from the bench. However, there has one player that has stepped up their play during the month. T.J. McConnell has played very well as Ben Simmons‘ primary backup during December.

McConnell has been a staple in Philadelphia since the days of former general manager Sam Hinkie and of “The Process”. It almost appeared that for a point and time McConnell may have not been in the plans for the franchise. Markelle Fultz was taking all the minutes at point guard behind Simmons and McConnell wasn’t seeing game action on a regular basis.

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Then Fultz left the team to figure out what was wrong with his shoulder and to get treatment for it, which allowed McConnell to step back into the backup role again. He has played well since taking over Fultz’s duties, but the month of December has shown that McConnell has taken a step in becoming a more aggressive score.

The gritty defensive point guard has been more aggressive in attacking the paint and shooting a little floaters. For the most part they have been effective, he’s hit 80 percent of his shots attempted within 10 feet or less for the month of December.

For the month, he averaged 8.9 points, 2.3 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 1.5 steals while shooting 61.1 percent from the field. He’s only had two games where he had shot under 50 percent and has scored in double-digits in three out of eight games thus far this month. The 8.9 points is well above his career average of 6.4 points per game.

Question is, can McConnell sustain this play for the rest of the season or at the very least until Fultz returns from his rehab? If the Sixers bench continues to stay as point starved as it has been then, maybe. Outside of Fultz and McConnell, there isn’t a bench player injured or healthy that has shown to be a consistent threat as a scorer. Sure Mike Muscala and Landry Shamet can spot up, but creating their own offense would be a lot to ask of them.

McConnell has stepped up his production in the scoring column because the Philadelphia 76ers has needed him too. He’s currently the only one who can attack off the dribble for the Sixers bench and unless the Sixers make a move to add a bench player that can create offense for himself, then McConnell has to keep being aggressive. Although his future with the 76ers seemed uncertain earlier this season, there’s no doubt now he still has a place in the club’s plans moving forward.