NBA News: Indiana Pacers Looking To Give TJ McConnell Extension This Offseason!

NBA News: Indiana Pacers Looking To Give TJ McConnell Extension This Offseason!

[Music] all right and we are back what is going on Pacer Nation welcome back to another episode I’ll bring the juice Pacers your guys Cody and Derek back with another one guys and a report just came out here a couple days ago and with the Indiana Pacers just recently resigning pas yakum we thought that we’d talk about it for another player who may be getting another extension with the Indiana Pacers so P Shams he was on the Pat McAfee show a couple days ago and he said that the Indiana Pacers are looking to give TJ McConnell a long-term contract extension of course Derek we know TJ McConnell coming off an amazing season where he set career highs in virtually every category and then really turned it up even in the playoffs and was average more in the playoffs than he was in the regular season and was a crucial piece to that Indiana Pacer bench he definitely came off the bench and provided a spark for this team and had some Stellar play along the way and I would say Derek he was probably in the running right there for Sixth Man of the Year I mean he was that good uh for the Indiana Pacers and was very critical to their success in the regular season and also in the postseason so you know he has one more year left on his deal the Indiana Pacers look like they want to lock him up long term and make sure that he doesn’t have an opportunity next off seon to become a free agent um so talk to me about TJ McConnell and talk to me about the Indiana Pacers looking to get an extension done with him here very soon it was a phenomenal year for TJ McConnell especially late in the season I mean what more could you say about him I mean this is a guy that you know is definitely like one of he’s definitely the smallest guy out on the court when you get him out there but and doesn’t typically shoot very much uh but what he’s able to do just from with all the basic things that you ask for a player to do to provide some kind of spark off of the bench uh McConnell does it right he’s he’s a menace to have to guard because he’s always running right so it it’s difficult to guard him because you know guys especially late games are trying to you know figure out a way to stop him and you know he just keeps running he just runs runs runs and it it wears people down and a lot of guys don’t like to play both ends Cody and if you’re one of those guys that doesn’t like playing strong defense you know DJ McConnell is not GNA be the guy that you want to have to have uh gu being guarded because he definitely will make you pay if you slip up and even in the postseason as well well the shooting aspect of his game actually started coming hand inand clearly he’s not a sharpshooter by any stretch of the imagination but the few times that the teams were willing to like hey you know mcconell go ahead and shoot the three man we know we won really trust you with that mconnell late in the in the postseason started uh making him pay you know so I think what really stands out about TJ McConnell is you saw his best basketball in the postseason when it mattered the most uh and you know a lot of people talk about you know when’s the best time to be the best basketball player and it’s obviously when the stakes are at their highest when you’re in the playoffs when you play your best basketball at that time that’s when that tells a lot about who you are now clearly uh there were a couple games I think it was early in the Milwaukee series when TJ McConnell was just absolutely atrocious early in the in the Milwaukee series but those last few games of the Milwaukee series and then from that point forward I mean there were games where he was just going off even at the end of the regular season we saw what was there a couple there were a couple 20o performances there Cody uh 20 Point performances coming off the bench I mean think about that so I mean it’s it’s quite remarkable and especially when given the fact that you know he didn’t play really any kind of real basketball for the last several years and then for this year to come in and play the most games you have in the playoffs in your entire career and play the most minutes and to be able to provide the best opportunity for your team I mean especially with some of the guys getting hurt the way they were I mean there’s not much he can really say other than that he just he is a Difference Maker because people talk about him and people hate him because he’s just the guys hate playing against him because they just want to have a break every once in a while and TJ McConnell does not give you breaks so it was definitely a great a season for TJ McConnell a Resurgence if you will and it it only is fitting that the best player on the bench for the Pacers this year should absolutely get an extension no absolutely I mean he was the glue I think that held that bench together especially when you you traded away buddy heel Benedict Maan goes down and you kind of have to you know kind of have some other pieces figuring some things out obviously we know Ben Shepard what he was able to do as a rookie you know played some good basketball earned some minutes there and some of that bench Roll But TJ McConnell was the glue for that second unit and he’s not there’s nothing super special about TJ McConnell he’s not the biggest guy he’s not the fastest guy you know when you look at him physically you’re not super impressed but I mean the dude Works harder than just about any other player in the NBA I mean he is just so relentless right he’s just that guy that just will continually I mean what do they call him they call him the little s right that’s what people were referring to him as in the playoffs because he was just wouldn’t go away he was like that bug you know we all know the one that just like won’t leave you alone and won’t stop coming like he he just keeps coming back that was TJ McConnell right and and that’s a very good thing for the Indiana Pacers because you need guys that are high effort guys and TJ McConnell is one of those guys and I think you just have a little bit honestly Derek of some some calmness when he’s out there right you trust T.J McConnell that he can orchestrate the offense he can get things moving and he can really lead that second unit right just playing some really good basketball whenever the starters need some breaks right so definitely T.J McConnell a guy that was a glue part a key part of this Pacer team this year you know a guy that you know he’s been with Indiana for a number of years but especially this year he just took it to another level especially like you mentioned in the postseason you know averaging over 10 points per game in the 2023 2024 season regular season and then the playoffs you know hiking that up over a point per game right and he’s not even like it’s not just like him scoring he does a little bit of everything right he just he finds guys he orchestrates the offense and I think that’s just so so critical to have kind of that guy that can be out there kind of moving traffic and and getting things flowing from an offensive perspective so TJ McConnell definitely was a big big addition to the Pacers this year when he got those opportunities and so definitely a player that is worth resigning and keeping around because he really found that role this year so that’s definitely a great thing uh but Derek the one thing I think that is I guess more I don’t know if I would say a negative but I think it is just when you look at the age chj McConnell is 32 so I mean he’s not probably gonna get this major giant contract at this point of his career but still a guy that I think has a lot of good basketball you know in his future if he continues you know on the trajectory that he had coming from the 2023 season you know taking it up in the postseason like what can he be like in 2024 and Beyond but that is really the only factor of like what does that contract look like right are you comfortable handing him a two threee contract or do you want to maybe go a little bit less do you want to go a little bit more right where do you stand if you’re the Indiana Pacers with TJ McConnell and kind of the length and what that looks like just from a monetary standpoint so I’ve seen projections anywhere from around 10 11 million is kind of what you know people are thinking I know right now TJ McConnell in this final year of the contract he’s du he’s due a little a little bit over 9 million for his final year of his contract so you you hike that up a little bit what would you be comfortable with Derek for TJ McConnell if they you know the Indiana Pacers extended him for two three years how many per year are you comfortable handing him I mean the good thing is is you have you still have a good amount of money left after signing seum pretty sure that you still have like 12 to 14 million left so you know you can make this kind of move uh and still look forward to next year I would definitely if I’m the if I’m the Pacers I definitely looking at like a two-year contract you know I don’t I don’t know if I’d want to have him as a three-year contract deal I don’t I’m not 100% sure of that I mean he is 32 so if you gave him a two-year contract he’s going to be 34 and I mean let’s be honest we know his role in this system if if he was a if he was a starter then you know maybe there would be some extenuating circumstances of an extension longer than that but you know again it’s bench he is a bench player uh albeit a very important bench player I I would go with two-year extension um and maybe you could do something with the contract like kind of like what a lot of NFL deals s do now where you frontload the first year of that contract you maybe give like maybe you give like a bunch of incentives or something if he do if he gets certain numbers uh this next season and then you know you you’re able to back you’re not able to you have it all up front and then that way that second year of that contract when you’re dealing out some other deals like for some other players that you’re gonna have coming through that way you’ll have it’ll be less money on your cap so I don’t know maybe something sort of situation where you know he gets like you know 11 to 11 to 14 million that first year and maybe drop it down to like eight or nine or like eight million the second year you know maybe something like that yeah I could see that being a scenario even if it was like a three-year deal I could see that happening too where you frontload it a lot you give him more of that money up front and then you kind of have an out say year three he’s you know starting to decline a little bit with that age and if not you still you’re good and you can talk later when he’s what 35 at that point so but I think regardless you know it’s got to be a multi-year deal the Pacers need to lock him in long term you need to feel pretty good about you know where you’re at with TJ McConnell and just this bench unit and you don’t have to touch it for a couple years then you feel solid about that you’ve got a key role player there and you can continue to you know add some guys which I know obviously with the NBA draft happening you’re probably going to add a couple more guys that are going to be on that bench and help provide some minutes potentially there compete for some minutes so be very interesting to see what the Pacers do there in the draft which I’m sure we’ll talk about at some point when it comes to that but when it comes to TJ mcconell man I think he’s just a great veteran out there he’s been with his Organization for a number of years now since I believe it was 2019 so he knows this team he knows this city he’s seen a lot of transition but he’s been able to find himself a very nice role here with the Indiana Pacers and obviously we know the Pacers have taken notice of what TJ McConnell did last year and how valuable he was for this team in 2023 and 2024 so moving forward T.J McConnell needs to be a part of this team for the next couple years and then take it from there I think we’d be pretty happy about that if the Pacers elected to go that route but we’ll see when the Pacers and TJ McConnell you know agree on this deal I mean I think T.J McConnell would be a guy who’d want to be here uh the Indian Pacers obviously want him to be here you know team that was very young but TJ McConnell being one of those veterans was able to kind of help out probably some of those young guys as well so that’s valuable as a lot of these guys going into you know year two and three I think that’s just going to be extremely valuable for a player like TJ McConnell to have him around there as kind of the veteran of that group right so guys let us know your thoughts on TJ McConnell the Indiana Pacers working on an extension hopefully very soon he can be Inked in for the next couple years and take take it from there provide that spark Off the Bench and that veteran leadership for a lot of those young players there on the Indiana bench right now but guys let us know your thoughts that’ll do it for this one thank you so much for tuning in we greatly appreciate it if you haven’t already be sure to smash that like button hit subscribe turn on that notification Bell so you know when we drop fresh content just like this like I mentioned already the NBA draft is set for Wednesday so we’re going to definitely have some draft coverage for you guys so be sure to check that out obviously the Indiana Pacers as of right now don’t have a first round pick so we’ll probably be focusing unless Pacers do something crazy probably be focusing more on that Thursday round two type of thing but you never know what happens there we’ll see if the Pacers add some more players or trade up or whatever they do we’ll find out but Pacers will have somebody new or a couple players new so that’ll be exciting to talk about but guys that’ll do it for this one thanks so much and as always go Pacers oh [Music]

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