Pacers sign T.J. McConnell (2 years, $7 million)
Good ol’ T.J. McConnell. Somehow sticking around in a league that supposedly he wasn’t built for.
Proving that wrong year after year he is.
McConnell was signed to a two-year, $7 million contract with a bit over $4 million in guaranteed money. He’s well worth it.
While McConnell is disadvantaged on both ends due to his smaller stature, he is aware of that and makes up for it with speed and effort. He’ll never be able to make it in the league without effort and intellegence, but he commits to his assignments and looks for ways to make his mark on the fringes and finds ways to excel when opponents get lazy.
Beyond that, he’s been a solid facilitator (5.0 assists per game) and can score when he wants to.
But most impactful is his energy and tenacity. McConnell is never lazy, always boisterous. Whether it’s talking with officials, opponents, or his own teammates, he raises the expectation every time he’s on the floor. While Domantas Sabonis has energized the bench unit in a lot of ways, McConnell has manned the floor in those runs and impacted his teammates tangibly with his passes and intangibly with his energy.
Pacers sign-and-trade for Malcolm Brogdon (sign-and-trade, 4 years, $45 million)
It’s tough to figure out where to place this one in the rankings because Brogdon has been marred by injuries for much of this year (something that’s not that uncharacteristic for his career thus far).
Ultimately, though, while his efficiency has dropped compared to last year, he’s still an incredible offensive player and his strong defensive is invaluable. And on that efficiency dropping, he’s come down from a 50/40/90 season to 43.9/31.3/89.5. Considering he’s in a new system and taking a higher volume of shots, dropping down from a supreme level of shooting to these numbers is acceptable.
Some might peg this one below McConnell and perhaps even below Lamb because the Pacers secured Brogdon in a sign-and-trade rather than an outright offer sheet signing, meaning they gave up assets when they might not have had to.
I even gave this one a mark lower than the McConnell signing, but I rank it higher because outside of a vacuum, Brogdon has been more important to the Pacers’ success even if the price to get him was a bit too steep for my liking.
He leads the team in assists and has been a professional injection to the roster, one that is much needed. I believe he takes the team’s talent to another level and had we (and should we) made it to the playoffs his defense would have proven even more valuable.
Brogdon ranks fifth in Pacers win shares (3.5) this season.