NBA: 30 players who should be coaches someday

NBA: 30 players who should be coaches someday 21. T.J. McConnell

In some cases it’s the NBA’s biggest stars who decide to make the move into coaching. The elite basketball IQ that keyed their on-court game is translatable to coaching, and their cache as a perennial All-Star grants respect from the players they coach. We have seen this from Larry Bird to now Steve Nash.

More often that that, however, it’s the role players who make excellent coaches. Even without the same physical gifts they can often bring the same basketball intelligence and years of experience. They also bring a tireless work ethic from having grinded to earn a spot in the league.

Star players may struggle to reach less talented players; something that came easily to them won’t for most of the players they are coaching. That wouldn’t be true for a player like T.J. McConnell, for whom nothing has come easy in the league. He fights and claws for every minute he plays, working to improve his game every year just to stick around.

When he has earned minutes he has taken advantage, hounding opposing ball handlers and generating steals at an elite rate. He has developed a short-range jumper game that allows him to use the tiny holes left inside the paint by defenses. That development and strategy to his game will inform him as a future coach.

McConnel won’t have to take something he does naturally and think about how to teach it to the next generation. Instead for anything he does on the court he can show his receipts, hours spent building that option into his toolbelt. That’s a work ethic that will serve him well in the coaching ranks.