Milwaukee Bucks: Pat Connaughton arrives in Orlando, completes roster

Milwaukee Bucks wing Pat Connaughton has joined the team in Orlando after his recovery from COVID-19, which brings together the whole roster ahead of the season restart.

At long last, the Milwaukee Bucks were finally made whole again Saturday night.

Mere hours after their second scrimmage victory over the Sacramento Kings, the Bucks welcomed the arrival of fifth-year wing Pat Connaughton, who had finally made his way to Orlando roughly two-and-a-half weeks after the Bucks first arrived in central Florida.

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Of course, Connaughton’s arrival to O-Town had been delayed due to the 27-year-old testing positive for COVID-19, which Connaughton had only announced earlier in the week.

For Connaughton to join his teammates in Orlando, that meant that he had to have produced two consecutive negative tests in order to travel from Milwaukee down to Walt Disney World.

And now, Connaughton is currently in quarantine, but may just return to practice as soon as Monday morning, just as we saw with Bucks guard Eric Bledsoe after he had arrived in Orlando midway through last week. That’s certainly too early for his return with the Bucks in their final scrimmage against the New Orleans Pelicans looming later that evening.

But with Connaughton in Orlando, that now brings the Bucks’ roster to the maximum 16 players they have brought ahead of their season restart, which kicks off this coming Friday against the Boston Celtics at 5.30 p.m that evening.

That is certainly good news for all involved and especially Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer, who will soon have a full roster at his disposal going into the Bucks’ eight seeding games.

Milwaukee had done well to make do in light of Connaughton’s absence in the rotation in each of the first two scrimmages. But Connaughton’s arrival obviously fortifies what has been a strength for the team throughout the 2019-20 season.

Now Connaughton has the chance to complete what has been a relatively solid season for the Notre Dame product and ahead of what will be a critical offseason as he’s set to enter to the open market as an an unrestricted free agent.

Any hope that Connaughton had in getting a decent payday obviously changed significantly in light of the coronavirus pandemic and the Massachusetts native has openly talked about his future in Milwaukee on different occasions over this hiatus.

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While those burning questions wait to be answered over the following few months, Connaughton and the Bucks’ quest to complete their wonderful season with an NBA championship will soon kick back on again. And Connaughton may end up being a much-needed option in that pursuit as the games get underway.

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