National Basketball Association

3 Things T.J. McConnell Must Impress With at Training Camp

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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T.J. McConnell of the Philadelphia 76ers has to impress with some very particular items of his game during training camp in order to make the final roster.

Coming into this year’s regular season, there are some obvious things that T.J. McConnell has to do in order to secure a spot on the Philadelphia 76ers‘ final roster. McConnell seemed to be a long shot last year, and may find himself in that very same position this season as well, due to some smart free agency signings the team made this summer.

Things got even more intense for McConnell when the team re-signed veteran Elton Brand to a one-year deal. The Sixers seem set on giving Brand a roster spot, which makes the openings slim for McConnell.

Fortunately for T.J., he does his best work with his back up against the wall, and with him seemingly in a corner. Somehow, he always impresses, and continues to put his best foot forward, surprising everyone, and finding a spot on a final roster. This has happened dating back to even high school for T.J.

He’s often doubted, and it will be no different this season. Through the doubts, T.J. will likely prove his worth, but there are still some areas that he needs to take a calculated approach in. He would be smart to work on some very specific points of his game for the coaching staff to consider based on last year.

McConnell will certainly be up to the challenge, but it’s still not a guarantee that he will make the team. If he can excel in these areas though, he’ll certainly have a much better chance of making the final roster, even with the stiff competition.

Shooting ability

One of the most overwhelmingly obvious things that McConnell needs to work on is his shooting ability. McConnell came in last season and tore it up on the floor, moving the ball where it needed to be and putting the ball in hands that gave the Sixers a chance to be successful. The thing is, it was rare that those hands ever were McConnell’s.

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T.J. had immense trouble this past season scoring on his own, and a huge reason for that was that he didn’t have much of a shot to use. McConnell is interesting, he often shoots better on the run. While most other players are better off if they stop, put their feet together, and then shoot, McConnell is just the opposite.

McConnell had much more success when he was shooting with one foot off the ground, feet separated, or something of the like.

Still, McConnell needs to develop a traditional feet-setting shot to get his game off of the ground.

His 47 percent field goal percentage from the field is a bit deceiving. It’s so high because McConnell sunk a fair amount of his shots from within 9 feet of the rim. He took nearly 50 percent of his shots last season from within 9 feet.

What’s even more interesting, however, is the fact that McConnell, although he’s not known as a shooter or a scorer, did do decently all over the floor, he just didn’t take many shots. Between 10 and 15 feet, McConnell sunk 50 percent of his attempts, and from 16 feet to the 3-point line, he sunk 42 percent of his shots. He took a combined percentage of just 37 percent of his shots from those zones, though.

What this really shows is that McConnell isn’t a bad shooter, he’s just a smart shooter, and he often knows that he won’t be able to make a shot. Rather than taking a bad shot and missing, he decides to pass. That’s perfectly okay, for last year’s Sixers.

This year, however, that is not going to fly. T.J. needs to keep his field goal percentages around the same mark, while also attempting more shots than he did last season. Being a solid point guard in the NBA can not happen if you can only pass or shoot. You must be able to do both to earn a long term spot in the league.

Creating separation

Another thing McConnell really needs to do is start creating separation between himself and his defender on offense. This is something he needs to do to secure his position over a player like Anthony “Cat” Barber, who does a great job of doing that.

McConnell can be bouncy on offense, but he is often bouncy with the intention of getting the ball to his teammates. Again, that’s a skill that is important — we need the ball to move around to players who can put it in the basket — but if McConnell could just do some things with the intention of himself succeeding, he would have a lot more success.

If McConnell could work on creating separation between himself and his defenders, he would be able to get a lot more open looks at shots, and subsequently score more. He needs to work on changing his direction quickly, and making himself a threat from longer range will make that easier as teams will guard him closer on the floor.

If he can boost his athleticism a bit, it should be no issue for T.J. to shake his defenders. He should be able to become a threat as a player who can get to the rim, while also having the threat of bouncing back for a shot, thus making separation from his defenders an achievable goal.

Feb 23, 2016; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Orlando Magic guard Brandon Jennings (55) dribbles up court against the defense of Philadelphia 76ers guard T.J. McConnell (12) during the first quarter at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

Shot defense

McConnell was known as one of the better defenders on the Sixers last season. As far as being a nuisance to opposing guards bringing the ball up, he certainly achieved that. McConnell was intensely covering all of his assignments, and as far as guarding the ball goes, McConnell did a great job.

Still, there’s some areas where he could improve. McConnell, although he did do well guarding the ball, wasn’t a great shot defender. It’s going to be tough for McConnell to really improve here, just because he’s a shorter player (6 feet, 2 inches tall) with not as long of a reach as other players. Overall, his opponents made 47.8 percent of their attempted shots last season, which was 4.5 percent better than when he was not guarding those players.

The closer the shots were to the hoop, the worse things got. McConnell’s opponents shot 11 percent better when McConnell was guarding them and they were within 6 feet of the hoop. They were 9.8 percent better when McConnell was within 10 feet of the hoop.

McConnell is going to need to show that he can be better than that on defense. Clearly, he wants to be, because the effort he put out on the defensive end last season was impressive. He’s at a huge disadvantage due to his size, but if he can prove that he’s still capable of going up against opponents’ shots, then he will be in really good shape to secure a roster spot on the team.

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