Cooney: Sixers' T.J., Covington playing for future roles

NEW YORK - The transformation takes place about an hour before each game. The trip is made from the practice court to the locker room and then to the bathroom, where 76ers guard T.J. McConnell applies the gel. Floppy-haired in his pre-, pregame warmup, the second-year guard out of Arizona then comes out with hair slicker than any style Pat Riley wore in the Lakers' Showtime era.

It's reminiscent of Clark Kent heading into a room and saying, "This is a job," then coming out with perfectly matted hair and a much deeper voice, "for Superman."

The hair conversion happened at the normal time Sunday at Barclays Center before the Sixers faced the Brooklyn Nets. The Superman part - for the team, not just McConnell - didn't begin until the second half.

At the end of the first 24 minutes, the Sixers looked as if they had spent the night out on the town of New York City. There were horrible shot selections, bad turnovers, missed rotations defensively and an energy level that matched a deserted city street during a winter storm. McConnell ended the half having his layup attempt blocked. He briefly barked at the nearest ref, realized he was really only mad at himself, and stormed red-faced into the locker room.

The team trailed by 11, had shot worse than 33 percent from the floor and allowed the Nets shoot better than 55 percent. McConnell had missed all seven of his shots. Small forward Robert Covington was 1-for-6, including misses on each of his four three-pointers.

McConnell and Covington know full well what their roles are on the team. They knew they weren't going to bring the team back for a win in the matinee. McConnell, though he scored more than 1,000 points as a high school senior, isn't going to carry the load offensively. And Covington has had shooting woes most of the season.

So while this organization has plummeted to the depths it has in order to draft star-quality players, it also has been a good spot for borderline NBA players to develop, to find out if they belong in the league and to showcase themselves to whatever teams might be watching.

A 13-0 blitz to begin the third was aided by one of the stars: Joel Embiid scored six of those 13. But the majority of the Sixers' 32-16 margin in the third quarter in their 105-95 win was spearheaded by players who very well could be filling roles once the stars are in place.

Nik Stauskas buried three of his four three-point shots en route to 13 points that decisive quarter. After Embiid picked up his fourth foul early, Nerlens Noel kept things rolling with steady defense, while Covington hauled in five rebounds and teamed with McConnell to lay the defensive foundation that was need for the team to gain its third win in four games and 10th on the season, equaling last year's final total.

"That's what everybody doesn't see, I'm guarding the best players," said Covington, who finished the day with 15 points, 11 rebounds and five steals. "Coach has put that emphasis on me. When things aren't going right on the other end it doesn't mean I can allow it to affect the other side.

"I've taken that challenge on and really embraced it and I enjoy it now. I wasn't known much as a defender before. But now that I really emphasize and take a part in it, my teammates have pushed me and I push myself. I take on that challenge and embrace it."

Having players embrace roles is as vital to this turnaround, this process, as getting stars. Maybe in the future, the Sixers could boast a competitive second unit, with Covington coming off the bench and providing strong perimeter defense and some scoring; with McConnell (four points, eight rebounds, six assists Sunday) providing some energy minutes; and Noel doing all the athletic things he does, paired with maybe a Gerald Henderson and Dario Saric, or some combination of all that. And maybe this draft will supply another player or two on whom the label "star" can be attached.

"They are the types of personalities; they are the type of toughness, that spirit that we want to have our program be built around," Brett Brown said of his role players. "You hear me say it all the time: It's the city of Philadelphia. We need that toughness. We need that grit to build it through defense and that toughness.

"Robert takes hits when he misses threes, but when you dig in and see the totality of his game . . . He had 13 deflections. We chart deflections, how many times you get a hand on a ball even though you might not get credited with a steal. The defense, the toughness, the rebounding and then when he makes shots. That's the elusive two-way player. But those types of people are what we're trying to do to grow our program."

@BobCooney76

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