It must be kind of cruddy to be the best midrange shooter in a league where the majority of fans think midrange shots are stupid and dumb and inefficient. Here’s the deal, stats nerds who haven’t even seen, much less touched, an unclothed female heinie: those shots are only inefficient if it’s not T.J. McConnell shooting them. So there. Boom. Roasted. Why don’t you go crawl back to basketball-reference and keep pleasuring yourself to OBPM ratings. Nerds.
The problem isn’t that McConnell is shooting these shots, it’s that he’s not shooting enough of them. I realize that he has to pick his spots because he’s kinda short and not that explosive of an athlete, but then it becomes a matter of the coach drawing things up for him. Would he ever miss in a catch-and-shoot situation from 15 feet? No. Catch-and-shoot situations from 15 feet hardly ever happen, but again, that’s becauses coaches aren’t being creative enough with their offensive sets. Why not try putting three players out by the half-court line, and then running a pick-and-pop with Ben Simmons and McConnell while they only have to deal with two defenders? BOOM. Perfect play. Guaranteed two points. Because if the defense over-commits to the threat of the McConnell midrange jimbo, he can just pass it back to Simmons for a dunk.