Tag: irish in the NBA

Former Notre Dame guard wins NBA Cup with Milwaukee Bucks

Congrats, Pat!

Former Notre Dame guard [autotag]Pat Connaughton[/autotag] won the 2021 NBA championship with the Milwaukee Bucks. Four seasons later, his role with the Bucks has greatly diminished. However, he still is collecting hardware with them.

The Bucks defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder, 97-81, in Las Vegas to win the 2024 NBA Cup, culminating the second such competition. So Connaughton now has two different championships since arriving in Milwaukee.

Connaughton had not played in 10 of the Bucks’ past 12 games, a consequence of falling out of the Bucks’ rotation. However, he did log over 12 minutes of playing time in this game. He missed his lone shot, a 3-point attempt, but recorded an assist, and he’s done at least once in every game he’s played in this season.

It’s hard to tell what the future holds for Connaughton, who turns 32 in early January and has only one year left on his contract. At least he’ll have this highlight this season.

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Pat Connaughton/Blake Wesley NBA Tracker: Dec. 9-15

One of them didn’t play at all this past week.

Former Notre Dame guard [autotag]Blake Wesley[/autotag] had a couple of opportunities to prove himself with the San Antonio Spurs this past week. After not playing in a Dec. 8 win against the New Orleans Pelicans, he scored eight points and tied his season high with eight assists Dec. 13 to help beat the Portland Trail Blazers. Four points and five assists while losing to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Dec. 15 meant averaging 6.0 points and 6.5 assists for the week.

With the Milwaukee Bucks winning a couple of games to advance to the NBA Cup final, Doc Rivers opted to leave [autotag]Pat Connaughton[/autotag] on the bench the entire week. While it’s hard to tell what will happen when the Bucks battle the Oklahoma City Thunder for the title Dec. 17, this past week suggests Connaughton won’t play in that game either unless it’s a blowout and Rivers empties his bench. It’s tough to see Connaughton drop out of the Bucks’ rotation, but that’s the life of an NBA player, especially as one gets older.

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Pat Connaughton/Blake Wesley NBA Tracker: Dec. 2-8

This week was…not great.

All that can be said about Notre Dame’s NBA representation is that it’s had far better weeks. It probably is best for Irish fans to forget about this past week completely.

[autotag]Pat Connaughton[/autotag] played in only game for the Milwaukee Bucks out of a possible four. That came Dec. 4 against the Atlanta Hawks, and his five minutes were the fewest in any game he’s played this season. The only meaningful stats he registered were one assist and one block.

[autotag]Blake Wesley[/autotag] saw action in two of the four games the San Antonio Spurs played but didn’t fare much better. He made a single free throw Dec. 5 against the Chicago Bulls before collecting an assist the next night against the Sacramento Kings.

It’s hard to know what if anything will allow the two former Irish players to have more playing time this season. What isn’t hard to know is that it can’t get much more blah if not worse than this past week.

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Pat Connaughton/Blake Wesley NBA Tracker: Nov. 25-Dec. 1

Both players had one good game each.

Notre Dame’s two NBA representatives didn’t play much during the past week, but both either tied or set their scoring highs for the season.

[autotag]Pat Connaughton[/autotag] saw action in exactly one game, but he made it count. In the Milwaukee Bucks’ Nov. 26 win over the Miami Heat, he scored 10 points in his second straight game, though it also was his first game in 10 days. He also set season highs with eight rebounds and two blocks while also dishing out an assist.

[autotag]Blake Wesley[/autotag] shined during the San Antonio Spurs’ Nov. 26 victory against the Utah Jazz. His 11 points were the most he’s scored in a game this season, and he also had three rebounds, four assists and two steals. He wasn’t so great the next night against the Los Angeles Lakers as he didn’t score at all while missing three field-goal attempts.

Hopefully, this past week was a sign that things are starting to turn around this season for both Connaughton and Wesley.

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Pat Connaughton/Blake Wesley NBA Tracker: Nov. 18-24

Very underwhelming week for Notre Dame’s NBA reps.

[autotag]Blake Wesley[/autotag] played in two of the San Antonio Spurs’ three games over the past week. His first game, played Nov. 21 against the Utah Jazz, consisted of one made free throw and two rebounds while missing all three field-goal attempts. He found greater success Nov. 23 against the Golden State Warriors, scoring seven points, grabbing two rebounds, accumulating one assist and getting one steal. That gave him a scoring average of 4.0 for the week.

[autotag]Pat Connaughton[/autotag] apparently has fallen out of Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers’ rotation because he didn’t play at all over the past week. ClutchPoints senior NBA reporter Brett Siegel is reporting that the Bucks might be dangling Connaughton’s name in trade talks. He has one year left on his contract, and the Bucks want depth and length on the wing as part of an effort to recover from a sluggish start to the season.

Needless to say, former Notre Dame players in the NBA have had better weeks. Hopefully, this upcoming week will be one of them.

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Pat Connaughton/Blake Wesley NBA Tracker: Nov. 11-17

A couple of solid games for the two former Irish players.

Notre Dame’s two NBA representatives turned in some fine performances during the past week. While they didn’t happen concurrently with each other, they still happened.

After six-point showings on back-to-back nights, [autotag]Pat Connaughton[/autotag] delivered his scoring and rebounding high for the young season with 10 points and seven boards Nov. 16 against the Charlotte Hornets. It also was his fifth consecutive game with exactly two assists.

Over three games for the past week, Connaughton averaged 7.3 points and 4.7 rebounds a game. This was despite shooting 36.4% from the field.

[autotag]Blake Wesley[/autotag] turned in a couple of scoreless performances during the week. However, he did have 10 points and two assists in a Nov. 13 win over the Washington Wizards. For his four games during the week, he achieved a scoring average to 4.0 and an assist average to 1.0.

You might be curious how about how these two players looked over the course of the week. Well, here they are:

Pat Connaughton/Blake Wesley NBA Tracker: Oct. 28-Nov. 3

Not the best week for the former Notre Dame players.

After winning their first game, [autotag]Pat Connaughton[/autotag] and the Milwaukee Bucks have lost every game since. Connaughton tried to play his part with five points and two rebounds in an Oct. 30 loss to the defending champion Boston Celtics. But he followed that by shooting 1 of 7 from the field in a three-point, three-rebound, two-assist effort against the Memphis Grizzlies on Halloween. He wound up averaging 2.7 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists a game over the course of the week.

[autotag]Blake Wesley[/autotag] did not fare much better over the past week with the San Antonio Spurs. He started out all right with five points and two rebounds in just under 13 minutes while losing Oct. 30 to the Oklahoma City Thunder. But he played only half that number of minutes over the next two games combined and didn’t register a single meaningful statistic. The result was a scoring average of 2.8 and a rebounding average of 0.8 over the three games.

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Pat Connaughton/Blake Wesley NBA Tracker: Oct. 22-27

Basketball season is underway.

(This story was updated to change a photo.)

The 2024-25 NBA season has gotten underway, which means it’s time to watch Notre Dame’s two representatives. Neither player has exactly had a glowing start though.

[autotag]Pat Connaughton[/autotag] began his 10th NBA season by scoring nine points and grabbing four rebounds in the Milwaukee Bucks’ Oct. 23 season opening-win over the Philadelphia 76ers. He followed that up by shooting a combined 2 of 10 from the field in losses to the Chicago Bulls and Brooklyn Nets. He’s averaging 5.0 points and 4.0 rebounds a game in this young season.

[autotag]Blake Wesley[/autotag] now is in his third season with the San Antonio Spurs. He tipped off his campaign with six points and two assists while losing to the Dallas Mavericks in the Oct. 24 season opener. He had a single field goal and two more assists in six minutes during an Oct. 26 victory over the Houston Rockets.

Wesley is averaging a mere 4.0 points and 0.5 rebounds a game over two contests, but he has the Spurs’ second-highest plus/minus through two games. Granted, that came entirely during the Mavericks game, but still:

Here’s to decent seasons from both Connaughton and Wesley.

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Utah Jazz sign former Notre Dame guard Dane Goodwin

Good luck, Dane!

For the past couple of years, the only NBA representatives Notre Dame has had are [autotag]Pat Connaughton[/autotag] and [autotag]Blake Wesley[/autotag]. But we now at least have the possibility that a third name will be added to that list for the 2024-25 season.

[autotag]Dane Goodwin[/autotag], who played 14 games last season with the Sacramento Kings’ G-League affiliate in Stockton before playing two games for the Kings in this past Summer League, has signed with the Utah Jazz. This news dropped two days before the Jazz were set to start training camp.

In all likelihood, Goodwin’s signing is to provide the Jazz with enough players to evaluate over the course of camp and possibly during preseason games. Goodwin, for better or worse, hasn’t made a huge impact in his professional career so far. But the Jazz signing him should indicate he’ll at least start the season in the G-League.

Here’s hoping Goodwin does enough that actually playing in the NBA becomes more and more of a possibility.

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Dane Goodwin will play for Sacramento Kings in NBA Summer League

Irish basketball fans will have at least one reason to watch summer action.

As expected, nobody from Notre Dame was selected in Thursday’s NBA draft. In fact, only five ACC players were picked. But that doesn’t opportunities don’t exist for undrafted free agents to land two-way contracts and NBA Summer League opportunities. For former Notre Dame guard [autotag]Dane Goodwin[/autotag], it’s the latter:

Goodwin just completed his fifth and final season with the Irish. Over his collegiate career, he averaged 10.8 points and 4.4 rebounds a game. In 2022, he made the All-ACC Third Team. Now, he’ll see how well he translates at a higher level of basketball.

If a certain trade hadn’t been made, Goodwin would have had a Notre Dame connection for a teammate. The Kings drafted Marquette’s Olivier-Maxence Prosper, the brother of Irish women’s basketball player [autotag]Cassandre Prosper[/autotag], with the 24th overall pick. They then traded  the rights Prosper to the Dallas Mavericks in an effort to gain cap space ahead of free agency. Oh well.

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