Ohhhhhhhhh TJ. You dawg! You absolute son of a bitch.
I am the biggest TJ McConnell fan in the world. I am not exaggerating. Outside of his family and teammates I genuinely might be the biggest TJ fan in the world. You know when I became a TJ fan? October 9th, 2019, when I saw him put up 17/9/5 in 21 minutes during a win in Detroit.
Since that night I have been going door-to-door here in Indianapolis to ask my neighbors if they’ve heard word of a 6-foot tall, basketball playing, Tasmanian Devil roaming the city. Neighborhoods have put up signs trying to keep me out. However, that is not what this blog is about.
This blog is about how TJ has been playing since the NBA All-Star Break, during which he was evidently put on a mission from God. He is playing out of his mind over the last 17 games. You want averages? I’ll give you averages. Over the last 17 TJ is averaging 13.2 points, 5.0 assists, 2.9 rebounds, and 1.2 steals per game on 56.6/62.5/80.0 splits. I had to go to Bball Ref, pull those numbers manually, and put them in an Excel sheet to figure that out. I hope you are happy. I’ll do anything for my fans.
But you know what is truly incredible? TJ made exactly 3 3-pointers on 18 attempts in the first 54 games of the season for crisp, cool 16.7%. Do you know how many he’s made in the last 17 games? TEN. Yes, get the potatoes out of your ears and listen again. 10 made 3’s in the last 17 games… on 16 total attempts! 62.5 percent on an incredibly giant and not at all small sample size? Greatest shooter on the planet? Me’s think’s so’s. Here’s some TJ highlights for the people, just cause I’m fired up.
Alright let’s go back to those averages. I can already hear you all saying “but… but… but Jellis! Jellis, those are just above average numbers for a role player!” WRONG. You are wrong. But that’s okay. We’ll get through this together. The reason this is very impressive is because TJ is putting up these numbers in roughly 19.5 mins per game. YES. You heard that correctly. Those stats in under 20 minutes a game!
Could imagine the numbers he would be putting up if he was getting star-player minutes? Like what if he was getting say…. I don’t know… 36 minutes per game? Oh shit, that’s already a statistic that could be easily compared to other players for this very reason? This is the first I’m hearing of this. But I can only find his season-long numbers. This blog is about his last 17 games… Am I going to have to do this manually again? Dammit… alright. Let’s cross multiply and solve for X children. Be right back. Enjoy another TJ photo while I’m gone.
Alright, I am back. And I have astounding news to show you. You are going to reject me for telling the truth. Please don’t burn me at the stake when I present my findings. Here are TJ’s per-36 stats over the last 17 games:
You are thinking, “Jellis, why did you take a Snipping Tool photo of an excel sheet? You could have just written the numbers out like you did earlier.” Well, nosy, if you are going to make me tip my hand, it’s because I am going to be comparing those numbers with other numbers. That’s much easier to do this way. You get it.
But take those stats in for a second. That’s pretty damn sensational. Now go back and look at them one more time. This is fun, isn’t it? Alright let’s get to the point DAMMIT. Take a look with me, if you will, at every player that averages more than 36 minutes per game this season:
Let’s just blindly pick some players at randome like… oh I don’t know… Fred VanVleet, DeMar DeRozan, and Tyrese Maxey. I certainly didn’t hand choose these guys to fit the narrative that I am currently trying to push. They were random, I told you that. Now let’s plug their per-36 stats in here next to TJ’s.
The evidence is clear folks! TJ is better than all of these players! We have a hall-of-famer, the MIP favorite, and an All-star caliber player here! And our baby boy is better than all of them! This is the greatest day of my life. We have an All-NBA point guard on the Pacers and his name is not Tyrese Haliburton. It’s Timothy John McConnell.
Alright, that’s enough facetiousness folks. Clearly TJ is not better than these players (Oop, maybe FVV? Oop. Don’t get me going here.) This was just a fun number-crunching session to show everyone how great TJ has been playing the last month and a half, and why I truly think he is the best backup PG playing basketball right now. So don’t come yelling at me when your home team’s announcers can’t stop talking about TJ scorching them! I’ve shown you the numbers dammit!
Alright, That’s enough for now folks. I’m gonna go make stir-fry. Have a great evening and don’t forget to watch the Pacers.
