It’s been a somewhat anonymous season for Pat Connaughton in Milwaukee. The Bucks have been the darlings of the league, led by MVP candidate Giannis Antetokounmpo, fellow All-Star Khris Middleton, and presumptive Coach of the Year Mike Budenholzer, but there isn’t a ton of limelight left for the former Portland Trail Blazer in his first season with the team.
Now, however, with injuries to starting shooting guard Malcolm Brogdon and first-round pick Donte DiVincenzo, Connaughton has an opportunity to carve out a more prominent role in the Milwaukee backcourt.
Connaughton didn’t earn any real playing time until last year with Portland, his third season in the NBA. In fact, he’s arguably more well-known throughout league circles for his preposterous vertical leap – 44 inches – at the NBA Combine that helped him become the 41st pick in the 2015 NBA Draft. That athleticism, combined with his 6’9″ wingspan, makes him a natural fit among the Bucks, but so far, he hasn’t stood out among the other long-armed, bouncy wings on the team.
That’s starting to change since the All-Star Break. Connaughton is averaging 25.7 minutes per game in 17 games since the break. He has a true shooting percentage of 62.3 during that stretch on a microscopic 10.9 percent usage rate. That is the third-highest mark on the Bucks behind Antetokounmpo and Brogdon. He also has the second-highest assist ratio on the team (behind seldom-used backup point guard Isaiah Canaan) during this period, creating 25.8 assists per 100 possessions.
Those numbers fit within the outlines of what a complementary player around Antetokounmpo should look like: someone who spaces the floor and hits open shots, can create for others in a pinch, and doesn’t dominate the ball. It all came together for Connaughton in perhaps his best game of the season Tuesday against the Houston Rockets. He shot 4-of-5 from the field, all threes, and added 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. Milwaukee was plus-15 in his 31 minutes, the best of any Buck.
Watching Connaughton on the break, you can see him running to the squares on the three-point line that Budenholzer placed on Milwaukee’s practice court to help his team visualize the five-out offense. In this clip, the ball swings to him in the corner in transition after first hitting George Hill on another square.
Here, Connaughton throws the hit-ahead to Eric Bledsoe, who then finds Connaughton on the wing trailing the break, and he knocks down the triple.
Connaughton can make this pass in transition himself, too, as he does to Brogdon against Sacramento.
And even if his vertical leap seems apocryphal, Connaughton shows off his jump throughout his game. Per Cleaning the Glass, he rates in the 90th percentile of wings in block rate, as well as the 93rd percentile in offensive rebounds and the 88th percentile in defensive rebounds. There are the unexpected tip-outs, a la Tyson Chandler, when he can’t corral a rebound. Connaughton can also explode for a dunk in traffic, part of what allows him to finish 64 percent of his shots around the rim.
Like most of his teammates, Connaughton’s numbers look a lot better when he shares the floor with Antetokounmpo, but his ability to thrive alongside the Bucks’ superstar makes him a strong contender for more minutes as the postseason beckons. Milwaukee’s preferred starting lineup with Bledsoe, Brogdon, Middleton, Antetokounmpo, and Brook Lopez has a plus-6.2 net rating. When Brogdon is replaced with Connaughton, that rating jumps to plus-10.4.
The Bucks have a chance to make some real noise in the playoffs beyond just winning their first postseason series of the Antetokounmpo era. Their success will largely be determined by how far their MVP can carry them, but Connaughton is waiting in the wings, ready to provide some secondary support now that the opportunity has presented itself.
