The Future Of The Sixers Role Players
In his second season with the 76ers, TJ McConnell has established his role with the team and proven himself to the rest of the NBA as he is currently fifth in the league in Assist-To-Turnover Ratio (3.4) while improving his Free Throw Percent to 74.4%. He also increased his Assists Per Game Average from 4.5 last season to 6.0 and that improvement has led to the Cleveland Cavaliers calling the Sixers about acquiring TJ for their playoff run. Philadelphia declined the offer.
Philadelphia Daily News Sixers Beat Writer Bob Cooney joined The Sports Bash on Monday and discussed the development of McConnell and other Sixers' role players:
"Now people are talking about TJ McConnell and maybe Nik Stauskas or others like Robert Covington, these guys have played themselves into nice role players in this league. They'll get interest but more so this helps this second unit team moving forward; talk about defensively maybe what you will have in a second team, moving forward with the way the draft goes and all that, you could have a second team that is defensively minded with either Nerlens Noel or somebody else, maybe a Richaun Holmes. You could have a Robert Covington, you could have a Gerald Henderson, Dario Saric; you know that's a really good second unit and one that can hold their own defensively and I think that is the route Brett Brown wants to go."
Hear what Cooney had to say about what others around the NBA are saying about Joel Embiid and the expectations that for him around the league: