Milwaukee Bucks: Pat Connaughton typifies team-first mindset

Selflessness is key to the Milwaukee Bucks’ success, and there may be no player who accepts, embraces, and thrives in his role like Pat Connaughton does.

As the Milwaukee Bucks picked up their sixth straight win in beating the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday night, Pat Connaughton demonstrated all of the best elements of his game against his former team.

In many ways, that made it an uncharacteristic performance for Connaughton. Not because it’s unusual for him to play well, but because it’s rare for his style of play to leave him front and center as a wider focus of attention.

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Given Connaughton’s incredible athleticism, he could rack up a selection of impressive highlights on a nightly basis, if he wished to so, but instead the 26-year-old can be relied upon to stick to his role and put the team’s needs ahead of his own individual stat-line.

That kind of attitude is a notable feature of the current Bucks squad, which is a group made up of players who would be widely deemed as high character locker room presences, and model professionals overall. Still, Connaughton is likely more representative of that quality than any other Buck.

Regardless of whether he’s being asked to play major minutes or even on the wrong end of a DNP, Connaughton can be found on his feet, cheering every play his teammates make, being the first to greet them at timeouts, and generally wearing a broad smile that makes no secret of his enthusiasm for winning.

On that front, Connaughton largely does what’s asked of him, and plays with an impressive degree of feel that means it’s very rare that he’s overly aggressive at moments when the Bucks don’t need him to be, and vice versa.

On nights like Thursday, the second game of a back-to-back at the end of a long road trip, when weary legs are not equating to lockdown defense, that’s when Connaughton is capable of bursting out of his shell.

Connaughton’s 18 points against Portland certainly will have offered a reminder to Blazers fans of what they’re missing, but it will also have reminded those who watch Milwaukee regularly that the Notre Dame alum is capable of doing much more than what’s necessarily been on show in a somewhat quiet start to the season for him.

Connaughton’s 7-of-10 shooting included multiple makes from deep, where he went 2-of-3, great cuts to the rim, and most notably an explosive putback dunk.

Speaking to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Ben Steele after the game, Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer summed up the impact that play, and so much of what Connaughton does, has on both his teammates and the home fans.

"“The follow dunk, that just gets our team excited, gets the arena excited. But blocked shots, rebounding, everything he does, the way he cuts and finishes, a really good game for him.”"

What’s worth noting in Connaughton’s continued willingness to put the team first, and his ability to continue working selflessly to ensure he’s ready whenever his number is called, is that this is a contract year for the Massachusetts native.

For many, that anxiety may lead to a sense of pressing to make something happen, but there has been no indication of that from Connaughton so far.

Instead, Connaughton continues to set the tone for the rest of Milwaukee’s role players. He remains the example of what’s required from bench contributors for a team like the Bucks to reach their peak.

It’s entirely possible that Connaughton will be required to deliver top quality postseason minutes this year, as he was last season. The luxury for the Bucks comes in knowing that he’ll be ready if that need arises, and that in the meantime he’ll absorb the ups and downs of the campaign with minimal fuss.