T.J. McConnell is absolutely aware of the expectations surrounding the Philadelphia 76ers. He is also one of the few players on the team who remembers what it was like to enter a season with absolutely no expectations. Three years ago, McConnell made the team as an undrafted free agent; in May, he started -- and logged almost 40 minutes -- in two second-round playoff games before the Boston Celtics took away their opportunity to go to the Eastern Conference finals. When he saw the Sixers going after it in training camp, he could tell they were hungry to do more.
"We have pretty much the same team back as last year, so we know what we can do with those pieces," McConnell told CBS Sports. "We lost a few guys, but we added some more, too. It's, in my opinion, the same team but kind of a little different. Getting the new guys here and getting the chemistry with them has been great. I know we can do some great things this year."
The many little changes have been discussed to death: The sharpshooting veteran duo of Ersan Ilyasova and Marco Belinelli signed elsewhere early in free agency. Markelle Fultz appears to have taken J.J. Redick's place in the starting lineup, with Redick sort of sliding into Belinelli's role. Free-agent addition Mike Muscala will essentially replace Ilyasova. It is not guaranteed that Furkan Korkmaz, Landry Shamet or the sidelined Zhaire Smith will be in the playoff rotation, but they will have opportunities to prove themselves.
Beyond the roster moves, a social media scandal cost general manager Bryan Colangelo his job and the relatively recently retired Elton Brand is the leader of the front office now. The Atlanta Hawks poached assistant coach Lloyd Pierce, too. All of the above, though, is probably not nearly as important as the simple fact that Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons are healthy and improving, and it would not even be surprising if both of them wound up on an All-NBA team this season.
"We're fortunate enough to have two franchise-changing type of players on the same team," McConnell said.
This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity and flow.
CBS Sports: First day of training camp, Brett Brown comes in and tells you guys your goal is the Finals. Obviously, that's different from your first three years. How was that message received? Do you think it helps to get everybody thinking about that?
T.J. McConnell: I think it's amazing. I mean, as an organization, I think your goal should be to want to get to the Finals, but unfortunately not everyone has the talent to do so. I know we definitely have the star power in Joel and Ben and Markelle, and we got the pieces around them to go very far.
CBS: A colleague of mine just predicted Joel would win MVP. Do you get the vibe around him that this sort of thing is realistic for him now?
TM: Yeah. I honestly believe he is unstoppable. In the post, there aren't many guys that are going to stop him from backing him down, and if they do, he steps out and shoots it and is able to take him off the dribble and pass. He's an unbelievable player.
CBS Sports: I know it was just preseason, but when Markelle hit that 3-pointer against Orlando, the internet went crazy. Knowing how hard he worked in the summer, was that a meaningful moment for the whole team?
TM: Absolutely. You see him lining up to shoot that with the confidence, and no one really knows what he went through. And that's his business, obviously. We're here to support him and help him with whatever he needs to do. When he lined up to shoot that shot and buried it, it was special for all of us. A really cool moment.
CBS: I know you're really tight with Dario, and I'm not even going to ask you a basketball question about him: I want to know what it is about Dario that made you call him one of the best human beings you've ever come in contact with.
TM: He's the type of person that, like, everyone in the room can be having a terrible day and he walks in and everyone automatically starts laughing. Because he's just funny and just a great person. I've been fortunate enough to play with him for now my third year, and it's been amazing.
CBS: Lloyd was in charge of the defense, and now he's gone. You've said Billy Lange is working tirelessly to improve your defense and I saw Brett saying you guys are going to experiment a bit on that end of the court. Did the Boston series sort of challenge the team to figure out how it wants to deal with 5-out lineups?
TM: Yeah, absolutely. You've really just got to go with what works, you know? I really meant what I said: Billy does work tirelessly, whatever we does. He was in charge of offense last year. We had our offense humming. Lloyd did an unbelievable job on our defense and he worked tirelessly, too -- deservingly so, he's now the head coach of the Atlanta Hawks. Billy's up, day after day, and probably at night, too, trying to see a way that we can make our defense better and take it to another level.
CBS: In your rookie season, the Sixers signed Elton Brand as a player. Now he's the GM, you're in a contract year. This is pretty unusual. What's it like? Can Elton talk to you guys a little differently than, say, Bryan or Sam did?
TM: Yeah. I mean, I think Elton sees it from a different perspective from playing in the NBA. He's also very knowledgeable of his job and what his duties are, but he also knows the human and the players' side to it because he's actually been there. It's a pretty cool thing to see, and no one's more deserving than Elton.
CBS: Did you get a chance to work with Steve Nash again this offseason? More broadly, what's it like to be able to say he has helped you get better?
TM: Unfortunately I wasn't able to, but I was able to play in his charity event in New York. I mean, I'll be telling my kids that I worked out with Steve Nash. He's an unbelievable person, but you see why he was the player he was just by how knowledgeable he is not only about his game but about his body. It was a tremendous opportunity for me to work out with him and I'm forever grateful.
CBS: Last year, second round, you find out you're going to be in the starting lineup for Game 4. What do you remember about that day, up until the point where the fans are going crazy for you?
TM: It was shootaround and Lloyd Pierce came up and said, "Get ready, you're starting." And your mindset completely just changes. You go from having a mentality that you're coming off the bench and trying to provide a spark to I gotta come out with tremendous energy to start. I tried to do a good job of that. I mean, the fans, I've said it a million times, they're frickin' incredible. It's an honor -- I know for all of us -- and a privilege to play in front of those people. We're looking forward to doing it again this year.
CBS: So can you build on how you played in that situation? Markelle's been starting, we've seen Landry get in the mix a bit -- you're no stranger to fighting for minutes, where do you see yourself fitting in this year?
TM: I really wish I could answer that for you. I'm kind of just going in there when I'm told and just doing my job. We've got tremendous players out there. Whenever I can get to provide a spark, I'll obviously do that. If not, 'cause the guys are playing great, deservingly so, I'll be on the bench cheering 'em every step of the way.
