We know [autotag]Blake Wesley[/autotag] will be one of at least two former Notre Dame players in the NBA during the 2022-23 season. We don’t know yet where he’ll be playing. However, we now can say for sure where [autotag]Pat Connaughton[/autotag], the other former Irish player in basketball’s top league, will be playing. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, he’ll be staying exactly where he is:
Milwaukee Bucks guard Pat Connaughton is exercising his $5.7 million option to return for the 2022-2023 season, sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 22, 2022
Connaughton, who won the NBA championship with the Bucks in 2021, is coming the best scoring season of his seven-year career, during which he averaged 9.9 points a game. A large part of that had to do with his tendency to shoot the 3-pointer. He made a career-high 146 during the 2020-21 season and shot 39.5% from 3-point range.
Connaughton and the Bucks were knocked out of this past year’s NBA playoffs in the second round by the eventual Eastern Conference champion Boston Celtics. Over that series and the Bucks’ first-round win against the Chicago Bulls, Connaughton averaged a playoff career-high 9.5 points a game.
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