Pat Connaughton Could Be on the Mound, But He's Chasing His Hoop Dreams

It's early March, and Pat Connaughton could be enjoying 75-degree temperatures as he stretches out his arm at the Baltimore Orioles' spring training complex in Sarasota. Instead, he's shooting around with the Portland Trail Blazers in Toronto, where it's not quite All-Star Weekend cold but it also isn't exactly temperate.

Connaughton is also seeing less action than he would in Florida. Instead of gearing up for a starting pitcher's workload at High-A, he's been relegated to bench duty with a surprising Portland team. He has appeared in 25 games, scoring 19 points over 76 minutes; he hasn't seen action in the D-League, either.

If there's any regret on Connaughton's part—about his minutes, about spending his early 20s on the hardwood instead of the diamond, or anything else—it's hard to detect amid his emergence as one of the NBA's new bench celebration superstars. He's riding the pine in the NBA instead of rising toward the big leagues, at least for now, but Pat Connaughton sure seems to be enjoying every minute.

Connaughton isn't biting on sentiments of regret, and the success and chemistry of the Blazers goes a long way in combating the potential for such feelings. "So far, so good," he says. "Can't complain at all."

This past summer, Connaughton had difficult choices to make, similar to the ones he made following his junior season and following high school: Baseball or basketball? Now or later? Dunks or strikeouts?

"That's a great question," he says of the latter. "I think when it comes to basketball, there's so many different ways you can affect the game. For me, a big-time dunk is just as fun as a three, if not maybe even a little bit more. But when it comes to baseball, there's nothing like striking a guy out, or striking a guy out multiple times in one game."

He was rolling. "I've done it before where I get guys banging their bat on the ground after their second or third at-bat because you just have so many different combinations to try to get him to swing and miss. It's always fun, especially considering you're more on an island [on the mound] than you are with a team."

Coming out of high school, Connaughton entered the MLB draft as a top-40 prospect, but the 6'5'' right-hander was adamant about going to a college that would allow him to play both sports, and so he slipped to the 38th round, where the San Diego Padres picked but were unable to sign him. Three years later, the Orioles made him a fourth-round pick, a selection some scouts believed was two rounds too late because of Connaughton's desire to finish his college career and degree.

"He definitely cost himself some money," an anonymous MLB executive told ESPN in early 2015, a nod to the substantial bonus Connaughton likely would have commanded as a second-rounder.

The Orioles managed to lock Connaughton up anyway, giving him a $400,000 signing bonus and allowing him to play basketball as a senior at Notre Dame. He joined the Orioles' Low-A team for a brief stint in the summer of 2014, throwing 14.2 innings over six appearances and posting a 2.45 ERA.

During that time, Connaughton had the chance to relieve the rehabbing Ubaldo Jimenez, affording the starter a glimpse into his big league counterpart's process. The two-game relief stint also gave Connaughton the chance to experiment with walk-up music out of the bullpen; after some debate, he borrowed Jay-Z's "Already Home" from his former Fighting Irish teammate (and current Reds prospect) Eric Jagielo. "You've gotta feel at home when you're on the mound," Connaughton explained. Finding the right track is a pretty important part of any pitcher's development, so we can consider Connaughton's first season a success in that regard.

He also got to pitch alongside promising young power arm Kevin Gausman, a former first-round pick to whom Connaughton has long drawn comparisons based on raw talent. That proximity gave him an opportunity to study the approach of a pitcher who survived a meteoric rise through the minor-league system.

The returns were encouraging, with Connaughton striking out 10 batters with just three walks in his limited action. Mark Anderson, of Baseball Prospectus, said Connaughton "has the ingredients to turn into a 3-4 starter type" and thought he'd be poised for a breakout 2015—had he played. Baseball America ranked Connaughton as the Orioles' No. 11 prospect before he chose the NBA. Fangraphs had him rated 12th in the system. Connaughton has made his choice, but those rankings and the small sample of his performance in the minors affirmed to the Orioles' organization that the 23-year-old was and is a prospect worth keeping tabs on.

And they're doing just that. "I still talk to some of the Orioles front office people," Connaughton says. "Obviously they have different motives because they want me back there, but still, to hear them say, 'You could pass these guys really fast,' 'You'd move up really quick,' whether they're being 100 percent honest or a little bit biased, I still believe it. That sort of thing makes me miss it a little bit."

Connaughton returned to Notre Dame for his senior year. His basketball numbers plateaued while his draft stock kept rising; his three-point shot and not-at-all-deceptive athleticism helped propel Notre Dame to a fine season, and pushed Connaughton up into the second round on most boards.

Entering the NBA Draft process, Connaughton once again had to make the baseball-or-basketball decision. The degree he just received from Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business helped him weigh the financial benefits of one choice over the other, and his family and support system played a big part. What the decision primarily came down to, though, was keeping both sports viable as career options.

"For me, it was, 'Well, what sport can I not give up right now?'" Connaughton says. "'What sport makes the most sense that I can go back to at some point? What sport do I have the highest ceiling and most potential?' I looked at everything.

"When you look at it, basketball, especially with the athleticism that you need, guys coming in after their first year of college—you can never go back to it. If I had stopped playing basketball, that was going to be the final decision."

In other words, going from basketball to baseball at some point in the future is a lot more plausible than going from baseball to basketball. The ability to run the floor and throw down with an elite vertical jump is more fleeting than the ability to throw in the mid-90s—or higher ("I've gotten 97 a few times," Connaughton says)—and hone secondary pitches good enough to get professional hitters out.

Once he decided on basketball, Connaughton had to make teams believe it. Most assumed he wouldn't go through the hassle of the draft process—and forgo money at earlier stages—if he didn't have the desire to be in the NBA, but "you definitely had to convince them," he says. The risk for a team is obvious: if they were to use a scarce resource like a draft pick on Connaughton only for him to return to baseball, it would be a big loss. "So I had to tell them, 'Look, it's not just about the business side for me. It's about fulfilling something I've tried to do my entire life.'"

Connaughton is close with the family of Boston Celtics general manager Danny Ainge, having played AAU ball with Ainge's sons. Ainge himself was a light-hitting third baseman for the Toronto Blue Jays before switching to the NBA. Having a friend in a NBA front office—one of the few people on earth who knows what Connaughton is going through—certainly didn't hurt throughout the process. (It also made for some friendly trash-talk. "Absolutely. I told him I'd strike him out," Connaughton assured me. "Don't worry about it.")

The Blazers have been clear that they don't want Connaughton moonlighting during the summer: playing in the NBA has become a 12-month-a-year job, especially for younger players tasked with working in the NBA Summer League. Portland general manager Neil Olshey at least allowed for the possibility of some two-sport dabbling once Connaughton's established himself and earned a second contract, but the team also gave Connaughton two guaranteed years with a third year non-guaranteed on his first deal, which is pretty good security for a No. 41 pick.

That doesn't mean he isn't staying in baseball shape, though. Connaughton uses downtime during the long NBA season to get in throwing sessions, which is part of the reason he believes playing basketball first made more sense. He thinks that staying tuned-up on his pitching mechanics helps keep his mind in basketball shape. "Some of these guys go to the movies, some of them take naps," Connaughton says. "For me, it's a cool spot to go by yourself, clear your mind. The 82-game season, it's a mental grind. For me, I just get away from it in a different way."

Connaughton admits that he misses baseball "a little bit," but for the foreseeable future, his focus is on the Blazers and mastering the challenges of the NBA. When he wants it, that other challenge will still be there. "There's nothing like being a pitcher on the mound," Connaughton says. "You're by yourself. Ever since I was a little kid watching Pedro Martinez do it, night in and night out. I've always loved it."

Connaughton has his work cut out for him, and he knows it. But he knows that when he toes the rubber—and it seems more a matter of when than if—it will feel like home.