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Milwaukee Bucks: Grades for Pat Connaughton’s two-year, partially guaranteed deal

By Jordan Treske

PORTLAND, OR - NOVEMBER 7: Pat Connaughton #5 of the Portland Trail Blazers gets introduced before the game against the Memphis Grizzlies on November 7, 2017 at the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Sam Forencich/NBAE via Getty Images)
PORTLAND, OR - NOVEMBER 7: Pat Connaughton #5 of the Portland Trail Blazers gets introduced before the game against the Memphis Grizzlies on November 7, 2017 at the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Sam Forencich/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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BOSTON, MA – FEBRUARY 04: (Photo by Omar Rawlings/Getty Images)
BOSTON, MA – FEBRUARY 04: (Photo by Omar Rawlings/Getty Images) /

Connaughton’s three years in Portland

Taken with the 41st overall pick by the Brooklyn Nets in the 2015 NBA Draft, Conaughton was sent to Portland on a draft night trade along with Mason Plumlee in exchange for Steve Blake and the draft rights to swingman Rondae Hollis-Jefferson.

Despite landing in Portland for his first NBA gig, playing time was hard to come by for the Masschusetts native early on in his stint.

Over his first two seasons, Connaughton made a combined 73 appearances, logging 459 total minutes as well as an additional 32 minutes in nine appearances during both of the Blazers’ playoff runs in the 2015-16 season and 2016-17 campaign.

After standing as a bench fixture for his first two years in the league, a celebratory one at that, Connaughton featured greatly in the Blazers’ second unit last year, in part due to the departure of Allen Crabbe.

Making 82 appearances during the 2017-18 year, five of them coming as starts, Connaughton put up 5.4 points on shooting splits of .423/.352/.841, 2 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 18.1 minutes per game.

As he told Jason Quick of NBC Sports Northwest very early in the year, Connaughton put in intensive workouts all throughout last summer in order to prepare for a critical third season for him personally:

"“I don’t ever want to look back and be like, ‘Oh, if I just put in a little more time,’’’ Connaughton said. “I just want to make sure I put in my work.” “This is the year I wanted to make sure I was prepared for,’’ Connaughton said. “If it didn’t work out this year, then at least I could say I did it in attack mode. But I wanted to be ready for the moments.’’"

In what proved to be his final four appearances with the Blazers, Connaughton nearly doubled his previous playoff playing time by logging 59 minutes, scoring 4.0 points per game on 6-of-15 shooting from the field and 2-for-10 from deep in their losing sweep to the New Orleans Pelicans in late April.

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