Pat Connaughton #21 of the Charlotte Hornets shoots the ball over Bobby Portis #9 of the Milwaukee Bucks during the first half of a basketball game at Spectrum Center on November 12, 2025 in Charlotte, North Carolina. David Jensen Getty Images
Pat Connaughton is in as much disbelief as anybody.
Those pages on the digital calendar keep flipping at a rapid pace, seemingly fast-forwarding over the better portion of the last decade-plus for the Charlotte Hornets guard. He’s now far removed from his rookie days with the Portland Trail Blazers and the start of an NBA journey that’s taken him from the Pacific Northwest to the Midwest to the Southeast.
“It’s crazy how quick time goes, right?” Connaughton said. “It doesn’t feel like I’m a vet because it feels like I just got into the league, and I was learning from vets. But that’s the way the NBA is. I’m fortunate to be in my 11th year. I’m fortunate to have won a championship. I’m fortunate to have made the playoffs every year of my career. I’ve been fortunate to learn from a lot of different players who go about their business in different ways, but all with the expectation of trying to be the best they can be and to help their team win.
“That’s the type of experience that I want to bring to this team. We have a very talented team. We have a team that I think has a very, very high ceiling, and we continue to strive to get better every day and try to impose on these guys that it doesn’t change overnight.”
With the Hornets still thin in the backcourt thanks to injuries to LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller, coach Charles Lee has turned to Connaughton a bit more and the 32-year-old came through with easily his best outing in a Charlotte uniform Wednesday night.
Perhaps inspired by seeing his old team, Connaughton tossed in a season-best 11 points, draining 4 of 6 attempts — including a pair beyond the 3-point arc — in the Hornets’ 111-100 victory over Milwaukee.
That performance didn’t come by mere happenstance, though.
Connaughton is typically among the last to leave the court on practice days, often firing off countless jumpers from varying angles and degrees of difficulty. He goes hard, and it’s all about being prepared for the moment Lee summons for him to peel off his warmups and check into the game.
Pat Connaughton of the Charlotte Hornets lays the ball up during the first half of a basketball game against the Milwaukee Bucks at Spectrum Center on Nov. 12, 2025 in Charlotte, North Carolina. David Jensen Getty Images
“Super important,” said Connaughton, who was acquired from Milwaukee via trade in July. “You got to always stay ready so you don’t got to get ready. Right? And you never know when your name’s going to be called. And for me, I’m lucky. Lucky in the way that my whole career has been that way. I didn’t play much my first two years until a few guys got injured, and I got a short stint my second year, and then my third year I ended up being the only guy to play every single game on the Trail Blazers.
“And then once right back to the same thing in Milwaukee, like, my first couple years, I had to earn a spot and I had to be ready whenever my name was called. And then obviously I became a 30-minute-a-game guy in the playoffs on our championship run. So it’s like you’ve got to just be ready for both sides of it. And you’ve got to also understand that some things are out of your control, like whether coaches play you or don’t play you. There may be reasons that have nothing to do with something you did or didn’t do.”
He continued: “So for me, I always just try to make sure that I’m ready to perform whatever my numbers call. Understand from a perspective standpoint, I was supposed to be playing baseball, man. This wasn’t something that anybody thought I’d be doing, but it was something that I loved.”
Add Lee to the list of those who are thrilled Connaughton’s career path has him on a court rather than a baseball diamond. Connaughton actually got drafted twice in Major League Baseball — by the San Diego Padres in 2011 and the Baltimore Orioles in the 2014 MLB Draft — prior to being selected by Portland in 2015. The Trail Blazers required him to quit trying to be a dual-sport pro athlete upon his selection, leading to him logging more than 600 games of NBA action.
Connaughton has appeared in all but three of the Hornets’ outings leading into his return to his old stomping grounds in Milwaukee when Charlotte takes on the Bucks in East Group C action in the Emirates NBA Cup on Friday.
“I’m not shocked about Pat,” Lee said. “Ever since I’ve known him, he’s always embraced his role. And whatever that role is, he tries to fulfill it at the highest level. He is so elite. He’s truly an All-Star of his role. And so right now, he understands that there’s some guys that are ahead of him on the depth chart, but he comes into work every day.”
To offer support in any way possible. Even if it’s being a pseudo-coach.
Connaughton serves as another set of eyes for Lee.
“We have a moment that we call on him during a film session or during a practice,” Lee said. “He’s able to give us some valuable experience, some valuable knowledge. And sometimes I’m like, ‘He might as well coach the team.’ That guy’s so freaking sharp. So he’s been phenomenal in a lot of different aspects. And then I think it just shows when he gets out there on the court, he’s still able to knock down a three.
“He still has this great physicality where he helps us rebound, and he understands tendencies and where to be on the court, too. So, all around, he’s been a great addition to our group. And a huge part of it is just because he embraces his role, whatever that is, on and off the board.”
Which is a huge reason Connaughton is still around.
Connaughton was essentially acquired from the Bucks in a salary dump. Milwaukee needed more cap space to sign free agent Myles Turner and the Hornets sent Vasa Micić to Milwaukee in exchange for Connaughton, who’s earning $9.4 million in the final season of a three-year, $28.2 million deal, and second-round picks in 2031 and 2032.
Initial indications suggested Connaughton wouldn’t be on the Hornets’ opening-night roster, particularly with another veteran guard in Spencer Dinwiddie also brought on board. But Connaughton outlasted Dinwiddie, who was waived in the preseason, and beat the odds stacked against him — something Hornets president of basketball operations Jeff Peterson even admitted during a team meeting as seen on an episode of the franchise’s reel access series.
“You don’t get to the NBA if you don’t have an inner confidence,” Connaughton said. “And it’s balancing the inner confidence, but also being aware and realistic of situations. And I think for me, I’ve always had the confidence in myself to be able to help impact winning at the highest level. I’ve been fortunate. We won in high school, the only state championship at my high school. In college, we still have the only conference championship. In the NBA, I was part of the championship for the first time in 50 years.
Pat Connaughton: “You don’t get to the NBA if you don’t have an inner confidence.” JEFF SINER jsiner@charlotteobserver.com
“So, I’ve been fortunate to be on teams, but also be a part of teams and an integral part of helping them win. So, there was always a confidence that I could find ways to impact positively this team. And as they were trying to change the culture, it was just a matter of controlling what I can control.
“Some of the things are out of my control, contract situations and what management and ownership is doing with the team and their view and their perception on what’s needed, I don’t have a control over that, but I knew I could control what I can control. And that’s kind of the way I looked at it since the day I got traded.”
Connaughton’s approach was simple.
“I’m going to work every single day, I’m going to do what I can to make myself the best basketball player and teammate I can be,” he said, “but also focus on what does the team need, and how can I be impactful there?
“And that’s where it’s being more vocal. That’s where it’s trying to help the young guys as well as some of the guys who have been here for a long time with the things that are both on and off the court.”
In turn, he can also play a huge role in helping change the national narrative around a franchise that has the NBA’s longest playoff drought, which is nearing a decade, and has never advanced past the second round of the postseason.
“I think, again, it doesn’t happen overnight,” Connaughton said. “And so for me, I wasn’t here last year, but to see the strides that we’ve made just in the two months that I’ve been here, two and a half, whatever it may be, I think it speaks to the organization as a whole but also the coaching staff and Coach Lee and what he’s really trying to do.
“And it speaks to the players to be willing to be coached hard, but also on things that aren’t just basketball-related. Because being in the NBA and winning in the NBA isn’t just about the basketball. It’s about being a professional at the highest level. And I think Coach Lee’s done a really good job of balancing both of those worlds.”
Ensuring the players do the same is among Connaughton’s main missions. His personal edict is shareable with anyone who wants to heed his advice, and he intends on having that veteran voice heard as much as possible as long as he’s here.
“You’ve got to use every single day to get better individually and collectively,” Connaughton said. “Some days that’s in the film room, some days that’s on the court, some days that’s individual work. Some days it’s in the weight room and some days it’s in recovery. And so you just start to really try to talk to some of these guys, and they want to win.”