Milwaukee Bucks: 3 solid goals for Pat Connaughton in the 2021-22 season

Pat Connaughton can work on his playmaking in the 2021-22 season with the Milwaukee Bucks

This almost seems like a luxury for what Connaughton brings to the table as a player, but his assist numbers did drop a bit from last season. Part of that is him being used more as a jump shooter, and also there being more of a focus on getting the Bucks’ trio the ball in their hands more.

Connaughton has seen his assist rate decline steadily since his first season as a Buck, going from 12.6 in 2018-19, to 10.9 in 2019-20, and finally 6.3 last season. There was a steep drop off from 2019-20 to this past season, and that’s something Connaughton could improve.

He’s not going to be someone who will create offense for others in the way anyone in the trio does, but he’s had similar usage rates the last two seasons, so it’s more about making the extra pass instead of taking the semi-open 3 point look.

You can clearly see where his assists came from last season. According to NBA.com/stats, 17 of his 81 assists went to Antetokounmpo, more than any other player Connaughton assisted. That’s from Connaughton attacking a defense that has been bent by another player penetrating and finding Antetokounmpo for an easy basket.

This isn’t to say Connaughton is a selfish player or anything like that, but he took a lot more triples than he ever has, and I absolutely can’t fault him when he was one of the Bucks’ best shooters, but part of that is he took more tight contested jumpers. His 22 tightly contested 3’s were almost more than he had the previous two seasons combined (24), so if he can make a few more extra passes instead of taking those shots, it can only benefit the offense.