Pat Connaughton opts into the final year of his deal, NBA Draft tonight!

When I think of Pat Connaughton, this is the first play that pops into my head. NBA Finals, Game 4, Lindsey and I were in attendance. That whole game smelled like a loss. Down all night, mistake after mistake, runs that couldn’t quite get them over the top. Until that shot. The roof just about blew off of the building. I lost my voice WAY earlier in the night, so when I let out a scream after that made bucket it sounded like a 12 year old girl at a Backstreet Boys concert circa 1999. A Fisrev Forum attendant came to our section to see if a child was in need of assistance. Nope! Just me!

Related: The NBA Finals were much more fun last season imho.

Anyway: Connaughton opting in yesterday was a STUNNER. Guy is coming off of a career year and was definitely in line to make $10-12 million a season. But he opts in at $5.7 million?? Crazy! Players deciding to stay in Milwaukee because they like it here and they have a chance win rings?? Crazier!

Now this could have been purely a semantics move and Connaughton and the Bucks are working out a longer-term deal, but needed him to opt in to his current deal to make the financials work. Either way: Patty C is going to be back next season and that is a KEY spot for a team that is hoping to make a Finals run in 2022-23. Next shoe to fall in terms of current players should be an extension for Bobby Portis.

Which leads me to tonight. The NBA Draft. The Bucks currently hold the #24 overall pick, they haven’t made a 1st round selection (that was actually their own pick) since Donte in 2018. As far as I can tell there are two factions on Bucks Twitter as it relates to what they want the team to do tonight:

Faction #1: Trade the pick. Package it with something (Grayson or George Hill) and bring back a player that can help you immediately next season. Clearly the Bucks need a wing shooter as depth for Khris Middleton. Get that type of player. Sure, Giannis/Khris/Jrue are all under contract for multiple seasons going forward, but when you have a player the caliber of Giannis, EVERY year needs to be an all-in year. You need to try and win as many titles as you can during his run. Can’t waste time on a pick that may never develop, or might need a few years to develop.

Faction #2: Despite the fact that Giannis is only 27 years old (!), this is not a young team. They’re actually one of the older teams in the league. And a big reason for that is that they never keep their draft picks. This team needs some youth, this team needs some draft and develop, keep the #24 pick and build a little bit of a base for the future. Giannis/Jrue/Khris are under contract for multiple seasons going forward, the title window isn’t closing, get a player who can contribute, but one that you can also control for 4 seasons at a reasonable cost level.

I lied there are three factions.

Faction #3: Blind faith faction. This is the faction I belong to. If they trade the pick for a known commodity, great! If they keep the pick, great! I’m just happy to be here.

Now I will say this: If you keep the pick, you absolutely CANNOT miss on that pick. And the Bucks draft history is, as the kids say, no bueno. If you go back to 2010 and look at all of the picks they’ve made through 2021’s draft, by my assessment there are only 3 usable players. Obviously Giannis was a home run, and that pick alone outcounts every other miss, but beyond him, only the Brogdon pick in the 2nd round in 2016 and the Donte pick in 2018 have yielded useful/good NBA players. The rest is a WASTELAND. Rashad Vaughn, Jabari Parker (maybe an injury exception here), DJ Wilson, Thon Maker, Damien Inglis, John Henson, etc. Most of these guys aren’t even in the league anymore. So while I don’t hate the idea of actually using the pick, if you draft a player who doesn’t at minimum become an effective bench piece, then you’re really in a bad spot.

PS: Mortal lock of the century is that I click, ‘PUBLISH,’ on this blog and they instantly make a move thus rendering this nonsense totally useless.

Double PS: I thought about adding in Larry Sanders to the list of effective draft picks since 2010. Despite how it played out at the end, Sanders was a VERY good defender and rebounder. And he earned a second contract! It all went up in smoke after that, but there was a 2-3 year period where he was a useful starter. And he literally just came off of the payroll last season!