It wouldn’t take much effort to argue that T.J. McConnell was the Pacers most valuable player last season.
Availability and effort are quite valuable and in large part the availability of key rotation players for the Pacers was a struggle last season. Effort? Let’s just say, McConnell was among the team leaders the let it go at that.
TJ Macs missed three games last season to greet his newborn son to the world, but was always primed and ready to play in the remaining 69 games on the schedule. After a couple of preseason games, it looked like McConnell was a square peg for the round hole of Nate Bjorkgren’s efforts to modernize the offense with more three pointers and layups.