Los Angeles Lakers All-Star duo forward LeBron James recently spoke on his podcast, Mind the Game, about one of co-host J.J. Redick's former teammates with the Philadelphia 76ers. He revealed that he has become one of his favorite current NBA players: TJ McConnell, now backup point guard for the Indiana Pacers.
The following is a quote from The Score's Instagram page.
The 32-year-old went undrafted out of Arizona State in 2015, but was quickly scouted by the Process-era Philadelphia 76ers as an undervalued prospect. McConnell overlapped with Redick in Philadelphia from 2017 to 2019. McConnell has been with the Pacers since 2019, and the team will face the Boston Celtics for Indiana's first Eastern Conference Finals appearance since 2014.
He's been incredible for Indiana through the first two rounds of the playoffs, with the 6-foot-1 veteran averaging 10.8 points a night, 48.1 percent shooting from the floor, 5.3 assists, 2.3 rebounds and 0.9 steals.
Next year, McConnell will be in the final season of a very reasonable four-year, $33.6 million contract he signed with the Pacers for the 2021-22 season. This contract is still too good to be true (one of the most entertaining backup point guards in the league is making just $8.7 million this year) unless L.A. partes with an actual asset like It seems very unlikely that he will be extracted while he is there. Future Draft Asset. Barring that, perhaps he and James could team up as free agents in 2025…
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