If not for T.J. McConnell, the 2025 NBA Finals would already be over. The Oklahoma City Thunder would be NBA champions, and the Indiana Pacers would be left licking their wounds, wondering where it all went wrong.
Despite averaging only 19 minutes off the bench in this series, McConnell has been a revelation, averaging 11.3 points, 4.3 assists, 3.2 rebounds and 2.3 steals per game. In Game 3, he became the first reserve in 50-plus years to record at least 10 points, five assists and five steals in a Finals game. The Pacers entered the fourth quarter down five points, but he helped spark their comeback with a steal and a game-tying layup to knot the game at 95 apiece.
In Game 5, McConnell had 18 points on 8-of-14 shooting to go with four rebounds, four assists and two steals in only 22 minutes. And with star point guard Tyrese Haliburton nursing a calf injury in a must-win Game 6, McConnell again delivered with a well-rounded 12 points, nine rebounds, six assists and four steals, prompting Haliburton to call him the "great white hope" in his postgame interview with ABC's Lisa Salters.
McConnell has been a steady fixture off the bench for the Pacers over the past six seasons, providing a spark of energy whenever he hits the floor. But long before he became a fan favorite in Indiana, he got his start with the Philadelphia 76ers at the tail end of their "Process" years. They signed him as an undrafted free agent, and he steadily worked his way into what's turned into a 10-year NBA career.
In doing so, McConnell and the Sixers gave other rebuilding teams a blueprint to follow.
Trust the roster churn?
In the national consciousness, the Process often got overly simplified as "tank for high draft picks." That was a key part of the strategy — and that part was hardly novel — but the Sixers' decision to intentionally churn through as many end-of-the-bench options as possible largely flew under the radar.
Rather than sign a few over-the-hill veterans to serve as locker-room mentors, the Sixers routinely cycled through young players on short-term or 10-day contracts. In the first year of their rebuild, they had 23 different players suit up for them, and that was before two-way contracts were a thing. The following year, when they went 18-64, they had 25 different players appear in a game.
Most of those players didn't amount to anything meaningful in the NBA. For every McConnell, they went through 10 guys like Hollis Thompson, Henry Sims and Brandon Davies who lasted only a few years in the league. However, the Sixers found two clear home runs in McConnell and Robert Covington, the latter of whom they eventually included in their trade package for Jimmy Butler.
The Sixers originally signed McConnell to a partially guaranteed four-year, $4.5 million contract (the so-called "Hinkie Special"). They wound up allowing him to walk in free agency in 2019 — the disastrous summer in which they sign-and-traded Butler to the Miami Heat and used those cap savings to sign Al Horford — and the Pacers capitalized by inking him to a two-year, $7 million contract. When that expired, they re-signed him to a four-year, $33.6 million deal, and they just handed him a four-year, $44.8 million extension this past September that locks him up through his age-36 season (with a team option for one more year in 2028-29).
McConnell, who turned 33 at the end of March, is a perfect example of a player who knows his strengths and has leaned into them. The 6-foot-1, 190-pound point guard never had the three-point shooting ability or the athleticism to be an NBA superstar, but he leaned into what he can control —namely, his effort and two-way impact — and carved out a lengthy NBA career despite his physical limitations. In doing so, he put himself in position to rack up more than $75 million in career earnings.
No matter what happens in Game 7 on Sunday, other teams across the league should be paying close attention to how a backup point guard helped bring the Pacers within one game of winning this year's championship. Superstars are the key to any title push, but every NBA champion needs contributions from role players, too. Finding low-cost, high-impact players has become even more paramount under the league's new restrictive collective bargaining agreement.
With that in mind, teams might start preferring high-floor players in the NBA draft rather than high-risk, high-reward prospects, particularly further down the draft board. More potential draft prospects are heading back to college because they have NIL bags awaiting them, which might result in a higher volume of older, NBA-ready players populating draft boards. According to ESPN's Jonathan Givony, teams are already accounting for how to tweak their evaluations of older prospects.
"In the past, it was easy to knock upperclassmen coming off dominant seasons when compared to younger players," he wrote. "But the level of competition in college has never been higher, with programs now able to recruit the very best players from across the globe, and experienced players staying longer — typically with the top teams in power conferences.
"Players staying in school perhaps can't be frowned upon for 22- and 23-year-olds as it was in the past, and analytics-oriented NBA executives are trying to determine whether — and to what extent —they should be tweaking their draft models to account for this new reality, which is very different than what they built their formulas on using data from the past decade or two."
McConnell likely went undrafted in part due to his age — he was 23 on draft night — and his low ceiling. With that said, Josh Riddell's DraftExpress scouting report for McConnell heading into the 2015 draft wound up being eerily prescient.
"He's the type of player who will pick up defensive schemes and NBA rotations quickly, while his work ethic should allow him to be a positive defensive player from an overall standpoint. The intensity and toughness he brings to the table is exactly what NBA teams often hope to see from players on the end of their bench, as he's the type of player who will raise up the level of practices and push the star players to bring their best night in and night out if they want to stay on the floor.
"While his ceiling may be limited, pretty much any NBA team could find a spot for McConnell and his ability to lead a bench unit in a backup or third point guard capacity. He'll need to show he can overcome his average physical tools to impact the game with his point guard skills and defensive ability in pre-draft workouts. If he can do so, he could play his way onto a NBA roster this season, even if he doesn't get drafted, and regardless will a long professional career."
If teams are more willing to overlook age and ceiling concerns due to how NIL is impacting the NBA draft pool, perhaps the Pacers' run to the Finals could inspire other teams to search for their own version of McConnell moving forward.