Is Philadelphia 76ers TJ McConnell Starter Material?

With injuries to Ben Simmons, Jerryd Bayless, and Sergio Rodriguez, TJ McConnell is the last man standing. Is he good enough to earn a starting role?

I don’t know if you’ve heard, but the Philadelphia 76ers are undefeated in the 2016-17 season when T.J. McConnell starts. Yes he’s only started three games this season but that’s three wins (33 percent) of our now nine wins. There is reason to believe that TJ McConnell should be the starting point guard for the rest of the season over Sergio Rodriguez. Let’s get to the stats:

To get a more accurate representation, I’ve collected stats from the games McConnell has started this year combined with last year (20 games total) to go along with the data from Sergio’s 29 starts this season. To make it even more even I’ve calculated their numbers to per 36 minutes of play time:

Per 36

McConnell Per 36 as a Starter: 10.4 points, 6.6 rebounds, 7.7 assists, 3.4 turnovers, and 1.6 steals on 36% from three point land with a True Shooting percentage of 52.7%. Usage rate of 16.3%, offensive rating of 98 and defensive rating of 105.

Sergio Per 36 as a Starter: 12.8 points, 3.9 rebounds, 8.3 assists, 3.2 turnovers, and 1.3 steals on 38% from three point land with a True Shooting percentage of 50.6%. Usage rate of 19.5%, offensive rating of 100 and defensive rating of 112.

Here’s what we can take from this data:

McConnell basically brings everything Sergio does on offense while being a much better defender. When looking at their play-styles, it also makes sense to move Sergio to the bench while McConnell starts.

Pros and Cons

Sergio has much more flare and fanciness to his game which would work well off the bench with guys like Nerlens Noel and Richaun Holmes off the bench. Those guys need to be put in the pick and roll and need a good lob passer to feed them. They also need that same lob passer to get them easy opportunities at the rim in transition. If there are two things Sergio has over McConnell, it’s straight line speed and lob passes..

McConnell has more of a steady and consistent approach than Sergio and should work better with Joel Embiid. Embiid needs much more post touches than Noel and Holmes and dumping it down low to Embiid while sticking great defense on the other side of the ball is much more of McConnell’s speed. McConnell and Embiid lean closer to the side of half court based players while Sergio, Noel, and Holmes lean closer to transition based players.

Make the switch, make the change, and start TJ McConnell.