Milwaukee Bucks: Pat Connaughton growing in stature as season progresses
By Adam McGee
Similar to how his season progressed last year, Pat Connaughton‘s role is increasing as the Milwaukee Bucks approach the business end of their season.
Pat Connaughton’s first season with the Milwaukee Bucks was far from linear in terms of his role, production, or even the expectations surrounding his play.
The 2018-19 season saw Connaughton carve out a notable role within his first month with the Bucks, only for him to come close to falling out of the rotation a couple of months later.
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By the time the Bucks found themselves in the postseason, though, Connaughton was back and had emerged as a key cog for Milwaukee, and a player that Mike Budenholzer seemed particularly comfortable leaning on for crucial minutes.
The trajectory of Connaughton’s 2019-20 season hasn’t been quite as severe so far, but there are undoubtedly similar elements and trends presenting themselves all the same.
Having seen his minutes fall off ever so slightly, and even logging a couple of DNPs around the turn of the year, February and March have featured Connaughton seeing his greatest share of playing time to date this season.
That spell has also coincided with a much-needed improvement with Connaughton’s shooting performance too, which once again is very much in line with his production from a year ago.
Having shot just 31.8 percent from deep prior to the All-Star break, Connaughton has posted a much more promising 40.9 percent on his three-point attempts in the nine games he’s played since the interval.
That mirrors his shooting journey from a year ago, when the Notre Dame alum made just 28.8 percent of his triples before All-Star, before going on to knock down a very respectable 38.2 percent over the final chunk of the season.
That has helped Connaughton’s splits this year to currently have him scoring more points than he did prior to the break, and to do so while playing fewer minutes too.
Looking at how the 27-year-old’s play has picked up over the past couple of months, it’s entirely possible that a chance to take his game under the ultra bright spotlight of All-Star Weekend has given Connaughton a well-timed boost.
Connaughton may not have advanced to the final of the Dunk Contest during All-Star weekend in Chicago, but he put in a stellar performance that earned him a lot of credit, and will certainly have opened the eyes of many fans around the league as to what he’s capable of.
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The hope for both Connaughton and the Bucks will be that he can continue to do that as Milwaukee gears up for and ultimately start competing in the playoffs, and so far the early signs are certainly positive on that front.