Going into his second season with the Milwaukee Bucks, the versatility that Pat Connaughton provides on both ends of the floor could be very valuable to the squad throughout the 2019-20 season.
With one day left until the start of the Milwaukee Bucks’ 2019-20 season, Pat Connaughton is hoping to play a meaningful role in their pursuit towards an NBA championship.
The 26-year-old experienced something of a breakout season last year in Milwaukee as he grew into a solid contributor for the Bucks in their run to a league-leading 60 wins during the regular season and a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals.
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Connaughton’s importance within the Bucks’ rotation only grew as the Bucks stormed through their playoff run, given his ability to knock down shots from outside, crash the glass and guard multiple positions on the wing.
Now after establishing himself as a viable NBA contributor over his first season with the Bucks last year, Connaughton is getting set to prove his worth all over again.
That’s directly due to the steep competition Connaughton is set to face to earn minutes from Bucks head coach, Mike Budenholzer, in light of the Bucks’ offseason dealings.
Following the Bucks’ decision to move on from Malcolm Brogdon, the front office set out to add a pair of veteran wings between Kyle Korver and Wesley Matthews. With those two on board as well as both Sterling Brown and Donte DiVincenzo grinding to find minutes in order to break through in the rotation, opportunities could come fewer and far between than the Massachusetts native would like for stretches this season.
Having already gotten a taste of what’s to come during the Bucks’ undefeated preseason run, Connaughton talked about the competition for minutes on the wing and the mentality the team has created as a result with Ben Steele of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel earlier this week:
"“I’m a competitive guy,” Connaughton said. “The best part about that is that there’s been a balance of competing for minutes but also rooting for guys to succeed. Sometimes in the NBA that can get lost in translation because of how much of a job it is and how much of a business it can be.“But I think this team’s done a great job of saying, hey, we have a deep roster this year … you can control only what you can control. Coach is going to do his best to make sure everyone gets the minutes he thinks they deserve and then you just have to be ready when your number’s called."
While that pathway for consistent minutes may not be all that clear at the moment, Connaughton’s aforementioned versatility could be the very thing that opens up regular looks in the rotation.
The big key to that, as we all saw throughout his first season in Milwaukee, is being able to knock down the three-ball consistently after hitting 33 percent of his 200 three-point attempts last year. That included an absolutely hellish stretch where Connaughton misfired from three and led to him falling out of the rotation completely for a couple of weeks before he set the stage for his playoff breakout.
But even when Connaughton’s shot isn’t falling or at least not consistently enough, the size and athleticism he offers on the defensive end is a huge asset to the Bucks’ already stout defense and that was key in Budenholzer exploring the all-out switching scheme they used extensively deep in their postseason run.
The same goes for the movement off the ball that Connaughton regularly employs to free himself when cutting to the basket for easy scores or swinging the ball to open teammates, which gives them a dimension they will look to incorporate more in their offense this season.
Even after working hard to rebound from the struggles that defined his first three NBA seasons in the Northwest as he did last season, Connaughton has to establish himself yet again ahead of his second Bucks season. And time will tell if he can ride a similar arc to the one that he experienced over the course of last season.