Pat “Patty Ice” Connaughton went through periods of time this season where he was the mascot off the bench to entertain the crowd. He was like a little leprechaun that would come in and everybody would get happy when he got a putback dunk or did some other cute little thing. But there were also periods of time where he was a legitimate bench player getting twenty-ish MPG per game and his value was measured in stats rather than being an ironic source of enjoyment for similarly-pigmented Milwaukeeites.
I would say that now the pendulum has swung hard towards Connaughton having a real bench role as opposed to him being a meme player who only gets into games to please the fans and no other reason. Exhibit A for this pendulum swing: him scoring eighteen points, a season-high, in this playoff game against the Pistons. Exhibit B: him averaging nearly ten PPG (in 27 MPG) in April. Exhibit C: I don’t need any more damn exhibits. I’m just telling you right now that Patty Ice is ice-cold legit. If you don’t like that you can unsubscribe from my life.
If/when Brogdon and Snell come back, they’d better not take Connaughton’s minutes. If that happens, I will have no choice but to hack the game clock and add twelve minutes (or one whole quarter) to it. That way, rotations will get so stretched out that Bud will have no choice but to put Connaughton in the game at least some of the time. You might think I’m being facetious right now but I can assure you that I am not. I have hacked many things in my life (microwaves, the website for the local backgammon club [now I have a 100% winning percentage, suck it Greta], banks in third-world countries, rival highlight makers’ YouTube channels, ceiling fans, etc.) and I will hack again if I have to.