The Portland Trail Blazers made a trade on draft night for a rare type of player in Pat Connaughton. Connaughton isn't rare because of his ability on the basketball court; he is rare because he was drafted in two different professional sports. Connaughton was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in the fourth round of the 2014 MLB Draft and by the Brooklyn Nets with the 41st overall pick in the NBA draft before being traded to the Blazers. Although Connaughton does want to play both sports professionally he reportedly is focused on basketball right now according to the Chicago Tribune.
Connaughton recently signed a rookie scale contract with the Blazers for three years with the first two years guaranteed at about $1.5 million. The Orioles still have Connaughton's rights for five more years after giving him a signing bonus of nearly $500,000 when he was drafted. Connaughton pitched in six games for Class A Aberdeen in the New York-Penn League where he had a 2.51 ERA and a 1.12 WHIP which is very good.
After that summer of playing baseball Connaughton returned to Notre Dame to play his senior year of basketball and hasn't looked back since. Connaughton was part of a Notre Dame team that made it to the Elite Eight in last season's NCAA Tournament before narrowly losing to Kentucky. For the Fighting Irish the 6 foot-5 inch Connaughton was the power forward and, while extremely undersized, he more than held his own on the glass averaging more than seven rebounds per game in his junior and senior seasons.
In the NBA Connaughton will be a shooting guard and he is more than capable of handling that position as shooting is his best asset. He is a career 45 percent shooter from the field and in his last two seasons at Notre Dame he shot 40 percent from three point range. Aside from shooting and rebounding Connaughton is also an extremely gifted athlete as he had the highest vertical leap at the 2015 NBA combine.
All signs point to Connaughton being a very good NBA player as he can do most of the things you would ask of a player. He rebounds very well for a guard, plays good defense, and can knock down jump shots consistently so there will be a place in the league for Connaughton as long as he wants to stick around. The question for Blazers fans though is how long Connaughton will stick around as he has reportedly made it very clear that he wants to play both sports professionally. Right now Connaughton is an NBA player but if he has it his way he will also be a Major League Baseball player at some point too.
