Pat Connaughton’s time with the Milwaukee Bucks came to an end last month when he was traded to the Charlotte Hornets for two second round draft picks. Some would say though that his time ended long before the deal happened.
The 32-year-old guard recorded his least number of games played as a Buck in the 2024-25 season, having seen the court only for 41 games. He also started in only one game.
Connaughton, who came to the team in 2018 and was part of the squad that won the 2021 NBA title, lost favor in head coach Doc Rivers situation. His minutes went to younger guys like AJ Green, Kevin Porter Jr., and Gary Trent Jr.
He is not giving up though. He sees the trade as a fresh start and is adamant that he can still be a player that can play significant minutes. He even used his last game for the Bucks to provide evidence that he still got it.
“I always knew that for me, individually, I knew it was going to be important to be in a position where I can play going into the last year of my deal and continue to try and extend my career in a meaningful way and hopefully not start the vet minimum clock and ‘hang on’ for another few years, but to show that the last game of my Bucks career essentially was not a random one-off,” he said in an exclusive interview with Jim Owczarski of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Planet Pat scored 43 points in his last regular season game with the Bucks against the Detroit Pistons and also grabbed 11 rebounds, and five assists. He made history on that day as he became just the third player in franchise history to have 40+ points, 10+ rebounds, and five or more assists in a game.
Pat Connaughton on role with the Hornets
Hornets is a young team that hasn’t achieved anything in their history although they got players with great potential.
Connaughton insisted that he can still compete at a high level but he will not have a problem mentoring the youngsters in the team.
“A broken clock is right twice a day, but I can still compete at a high level, I can still help a team win, I can play a different role as being a mentor to an organization that has a young group that’s trying to continually grow their triangle,” he said.
“And they’ve got a great guy at the helm [Hornets coach Charles Lee] to do so and somebody I obviously have a lot of experience with and a close relationship with. So, I tried to look at the positives and the exciting times ahead.”
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