'T.J.'s the best backup point guard in the NBA': McConnell's contributions critical

INDIANAPOLIS -- T.J. McConnell entered the third quarter of Thursday's game with a clear understanding of his assignment.

The Pacers' energy, especially on the defensive end, had divebombed after what statistically was one of their best halves of the season. They gave up just 43 points to the last-place Pistons in the first two quarter, but they were in the middle of giving up 45 in the third quarter alone in what Pacers coach Rick Carlisle called "an obvious loss of concentration."

So McConnell, the Pacers' gritty veteran point guard was asked to wake everybody up, and on one sequence in particular, he did everything possible to do that.

After the Pistons cut what had been a 31-point Pacers advantage to a 15-point deficit, McConnell noticed All-Star Tyrese Haliburton running into a double team on a pick and roll near the low block, so he cut up to the top of the key, caught a pass in motion, knifed into the paint with one dribble and pulled up from just inside the foul-line to knock down one of those 8-foot jumpers he never seems to miss.

On the ensuing possession he got caught up in an early ball screen, but never gave up on the play. He switched on to Pistons 6-7, 215-pound wing Troy Brown Jr. Brown tried to drive on the 6-1, 190-pound McConnell, but McConnell kept Brown in front of him down to the low block and stripped him of the ball right before Brown was about to go up for a shot. McConnell turned that steal into an immediate fast-break and threw a perfectly-executed lob to high-flying rim runner Obi Toppin for a left-handed jam.

The Pacers gave up a 3-pointer to rookie guard Marcus Sasser on the next possession, but McConnell's energy seemed to have permeated the team by then, as rookie Ben Sheppard drove baseline for a dunk and swung on the rim and center Isaiah Jackson followed with an And-1. The Pacers still had some stumbles the rest of the way but hung on to beat the Pistons 129-115 in their first game after the All-Star break, improving to 32-25 and holding on to the important sixth position in the Eastern Conference standings.

That sequence was part of what has become an almost standard performance for McConnell, who began this season technically out of the rotation but has maintained his position as one of the Pacers' most indispensable players and arguably the most important member of their bench. McConnell is averaging the fewest minutes of his career, but he may be having his most impactful season. On Thursday night he played just 17 minutes and 36 seconds, but in that time he scored 16 points on 7 of 11 shooting, hit a rare pair of 3-pointers, dished out five assists against one turnover, grabbed six rebounds and two steals and even blocked a shot.

"T.J.'s been huge," Haliburton said. "I thought he had a really good game tonight, he did a great job of keeping our second unit going, the ball moving, and just doing what he does. T.J.'s the best backup point guard in the NBA. He changes games. This is what he does. It's not a surprise to any of us watching him out there. It's just good to see him hooping."

It is not a surprise at all anymore, and McConnell has become so effective at doing exactly what it is that he does that Pacers coach Rick Carlisle has run out of creative ways to describe his impact. He's called him a "serial paint attacker" and "out of his mind" as a competitor, and "extreme" during this season but he's come to the point that he's running out of adjectives. And McConnell has played with the same approach throughout his nine years even though he's been underestimated all along the way, so it doesn't even stand out when he's successful.

But a night when the Pacers at times moseyed along in the first game of their post-break schedule, entirely too content and entirely too comfortable playing against the NBA's worst team highlighted further McConnell's critical impact on this Pacers' team.

When the season began, he seemed to be the odd man out. The Pacers had added a top defender and a secondary ball-handler in Bruce Brown in free agency in the offseason. That meant they didn't need to start Andrew Nembhard at shooting guard anymore. It meant they could get Nembhard work at point guard, his natural position, on the second unit. That meant there was no role for McConnell, and Carlisle told him so in a conversation the day before the season opener. McConnell played just six minutes in a blowout win over Washington in the season opener.

But in the second game of the season, Carlisle found that he needed him for almost 19 minutes against the Cavaliers in Cleveland. He posted eight points and eight assists that night, and that began what his been the most productive season in McConnell's career on a per-minute basis.

McConnell is averaging 17.3 minutes per game, but still averaging 8.4 points and 5.5 assists per game while shooting 53.9% from the floor. He's averaging 17.0 points and 11.1 assists per 36 minutes, both career highs. None of the Pacers' guards are shooting a higher percentage from the floor and only Haliburton, the NBA's leader in assists per game, is averaging more assists per 36 minutes.

McConnell's 5.4 assists per game in bench appearances -- he's started in four of his 46 games -- put him second behind Golden State's Chris Paul in assists among players who have come off the bench at least 20 times. His 227 total assists off the bench put him behind only Sacramento's Malik Monk, who has 282. His 41 steals off the bench are the ninth highest figure.

He accomplished all that because even though Carlisle didn't initially think he would, he's much more frequently found reasons to put McConnell on the floor than to keep him off of it.

"My conversation with him before the season with the way things were looking," Carlisle said, "that's why 82 games is an eternity. You need guys that are high on the compete level scale on a consistent basis."

McConnell never had a problem maintaining that compete level even after hearing that his minutes were likely to be cut. McConnell missed seven games last season, but all of them were for injury or illness reasons. This season, he's missed 11. Two of those were due to an illness, but the other nine were did not play-coach's decision situations and most of those came in situations when Carlisle saw Nembhard as the better matchup spot for the backup point guard spot.

"I just really was focused on whether if I'm in the lineup or I'm not, just remain professional," McConnell said. "One of those things where you're not trying to do woe-is-me, it's one of those things just to remain a great teammate and whether I'm in the rotation or not, just be there for the guys and be a pro and be a good teammate. That's really all I was focused on. When my number's called, just be a professional at that point and go out and do your job. That's really how I looked at it."

To do his job, McConnell relied on his most valuable asset, that which has carried him through nine seasons as an undersized undrafted point guard out of Arizona-- his indefatigable motor as well as basketball intellect of the highest order. The Pittsburgh native still approaches the game the same way he did as a rookie with Philadelphia back in 2015-16. He defends ball-handlers for 94 feet and tries to steal every inbounds pass he can and he goes hard off the dribble, but looks for and hits shots within 10 feet of the rim. According to Basketball Reference, he entered Thursday's game shooting a career high 71.4% within 3 feet of the rim this season and 56.0% from 3-10 feet. Of his field goal attempts, 65.6% come from within 10 feet and another 26.6% come within 16 feet with just 7.8% coming from beyond that. But even as an undersized player, getting close to the rim and the taller players who tend to play around it doesn't hold him back because he's simply moving too fast for anyone to block his shot.

"I think when T.J. is playing with confidence, he's really a tough cover and he really just plays the right way," Haliburton said. "Defensively he's going to bring to the table what he brings every night. ... We got guys on our roster who need to be paying attention to that. If you look at T.J. McConnell, you probably wouldn't expect this, but what he does on a nightly basis is he just comes in here and competes. I think the league would agree that there's not many guys who play harder than T.J. McConnell and I think that's what separates him."

The one area where McConnell hasn't been better even than he was last season is outside shooting. He entered Thursday's game 3 of 19 from beyond the arc this season. However, in his first game back from the break he drilled two 3-pointers.

"Obviously, really slow start from 3 this year," McConnell said. "In and out of the lineup and wasn't able to get a rhythm, but just continuing to trust that process, continuing to work with (assistant coach Jenny Bouceck). ... It's really a mindset, honestly. When they go way under (screens) I just gotta shoot it. It's one of those shots that it hurts our team if I don't. The one I shot in the corner, it was wide open. It's one of those things where you just gotta look yourself in the mirror and say, if you turn those shots down, it's not good for us."

McConnell's play has been so consistent that Carlisle finally reached the point over the last month that he reconsidered the rotation just to make sure McConnell was a part of it. In the first games of Haliburton's minutes restriction, Carlisle struggled to make it work so he could get McConnell in the game after using Nembhard as the backup, so he moved Nembhard into the starting lineup because it helped "the ecosystem of the roster." He acknowledged what he really meant was that he created a more permanent spot for McConnell.

"He's just a true professional," Haliburton said. "... What he's done is just keep his head down and prove that he's a tough guy to keep off the floor."

Now he's in a position where he has to bring along the players around him. The Pacers lead the NBA in bench scoring (47.3 points per game) and in bench field goal percentage (.508) but they did lose one of their most productive scorers in sharpshooter Buddy Hield, who came off the bench extensively this season. The second unit will usually have second-year guard Bennedict Mathurin, who started on Thursday with forward Aaron Nesmith out with an ankle sprain. However, they will have to integrate Doug McDermott after his recent trade and the Pacers will likely require more minutes out of freshman Ben Sheppard.

That will take some getting used to, but Carlisle knows not to put that past McConnell.

"His adaptability is the story of his career," Carlisle said. "Undrafted, everybody's betting against him. I remember the story that the first game he suited up here, Nate McMillan said, 'Hey, you're probably going to be in the rotation.' Something happened the first game of the year and then he didn't lose the job for the next three or four years. He's special that way."

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Pacers vs. Pistons: T.J. McConnell keeps second unit going