Milwaukee Bucks: Grades for Pat Connaughton’s three-year, $16 million deal
What’s the grade on Pat Connaughton’s deal with the Milwaukee Bucks?
With things finally set in stone and you consider all of the twists and turns in order for the Bucks to bring back Connaughton, it’s hard to undo the many developments that led to what his final deal looks to be.
Even with the Bucks’ wing rotation unsorted with essentially Connaughton, Donte DiVincenzo and Sam Merrill in place, Connaughton’s return does very little in making that a finished product in terms of the team’s roster construction.
Speaking as someone who is probably more pro-Pat than most Bucks fans are, Connaughton does bring a different dimension to those players when he is clicking on the right nights. His defense, while aggressive, does have its uses, especially when there’s a shooting threat on the floor and he does just enough to contribute in other ways with his rebounding and is a nice small ball option under those situations.
The Bucks may very well easily find a nice veteran wing to bring on a minimum deal in free agency to bolster that area of their roster. It remains to be seen who would be willing to come to Milwaukee, especially with DiVincenzo and Connaughton taking up minutes at the moment.
Basically, for Connaughton to live up to his new contract and raise, it comes down to having faith that he’s able to sort out the shooting questions that have followed him throughout his career. And I speak for all Bucks fans in saying that there’s plenty of skepticism on that front after seeing the ups and downs he had in Milwaukee the last two seasons.
Thankfully, the Bucks have made some offensive upgrades to the point where Connaughton can exist in a role where he just offers up shooting, defense, rebounding and a jolt of athleticism for when they need it. Being able to play his role suited Connaughton more in his first season, especially as the Bucks had multiple creators on the floor and in their backcourt during the Bucks’ run to the Eastern Conference Finals.
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But because they have doesn’t overlook all of the developments that have occurred to where we are looking at a bigger deal for Connaughton that what was originally reported. All for someone who may just be the Bucks’ third wing when it matters most.