Philadelphia 76ers 2019 roundtable: New Year’s resolutions
T.J. McConnell
By Alexander Rosenfeld
If we’re talking about my true T.J. McConnell New Year’s fantasy, then it’s pulling off a Freaky Friday, switching the bodies of McConnell and Markelle Fultz. How insane would McConnell be with a 6-foot-4 frame and a 6-foot-9 wingspan?
Opposing teams would never be able to inbound off a made basket ever again. Ben Simmons would have to renounce his throne as the team’s premiere triple-double threat. Joel Embiid would be chasing a guy on his own team in his fight to win the MVP. If you think I’m pushing this fantasy too far, then you clearly haven’t enjoyed enough champagne. You’re also probably right, but a man can dream…
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In all seriousness, a great T.J. New Year’s resolution is for the dynamic 6-foot-2 guard to add an additional three-point shot to his arsenal. Being small, it’s unlikely that he’ll be able to appreciably fix any of his nagging defensive issues, but I’ve always felt that he could do better than only taking wide open, standstill threes.
The backup point guard has an awesome ability to create space and hit off-balance midrange shots and yet he’s limited his comfort zone to taking only the most basic type of 3-pointer. Wouldn’t it be nice if T.J. could run off a screen and hit a three? What if he had a little shake-and-bake or step back move to create space and chuck?
He’s limited by a long release from distance, so fixing that would be part of this, but man would it help both his wallet and this team to turn at least one or two of his two-point makes per game into threes.
Of course, as a backup plan, me and my team of severely underpaid scientists will continue to work on the coveted Fultz body switch.