It’s time to welcome the Thunder’s biggest Free Agent signing in franchise history, Patrick Patterson. Patterson has played for 3 teams in his 6 year NBA career, and might still be most notable for lasting a full 3 years at during this one and done era of Kentucky basketball. He is a career 7.9 points 4.7 rebounds per game player which dramatically undersells the value he will bring to the team.
First things first, Pat is here for 3 point shooting (career 36.8% after not even attempting a 3 his first two years in the league) and defense. Now, if you’ve followed along after the trade you’ve probably heard some negative discussion from Raptors fans about his purported 3 point shooting ability. Namely, he doesn’t make shots when it really matters, very streaky, and will make three 3’s in a blowout to inflate his stats. We will delve into this a bit deeper but do keep in mind he had an atrocious playoffs and that small sample is sticking out in their minds much more than what he did over the course of 4 years and 37.3% shooting on nearly 1000 attempts. However, there might be some validity to the complaints that Patterson did most of his work when games were out of hand. Across the board his box score stats go up significantly in the 4th quarter.
Take this how you will but, in addition to the increase in box score stats he also played significantly more minutes in the 4th quarter compared to the first 3. Potentially, this can be attributed to play when the game is out of hand, but I haven’t watched enough games to judge. Most likely, the Raptor fans will know best, but I sure do hope they are incorrect in their assessment. Again, I don’t feel entirely comfortable making a determination without watching the games but here are a couple charts that can help you formulate an opinion.
Moving on, let’s take a look at a few plays and see what kind of player PatPat is on the floor.
In looking for some plays to highlight I watched around 130 shot attempts by him from last season. Frankly, it was a bit underwhelming and pretty tedious. Almost every single shot was a catch and shoot 3 pointer. I understand that a quick trigger 3 point shooter is exactly what we are looking for, but there is next to no other offensive skill here.
Here is a perfect example of a play you will see run 100 times this year. A quick side pick and roll where Patterson immediately cuts to the corner. Domas and Morrow aren’t exactly stellar defenders and he ends up with a wide open 3. The shot misses but it is a good shot. On this play Domas hedges way out on the ball and gives a ton of space to Patterson. This is clearly not ideal as Patterson is going to slip the screen and head to the corner most of the time. I’ll be curious to see if teams start hugging tight to his pop outs to the 3 line.
Now, going back to the lack of any real skill outside of 3 point shooting let’s take a closer look. Last season he shot 53.3% at the rim and 48.4% overall in the paint. NBA.com has record of him attempting 12 tip shots and he only converted 41.7% of them. His most common shot around the rim other than layups are jump hooks. He shot 47.1% percent on them last year. I watched each of these and take issue with the way NBA.com records them. The majority of them I would classify more along the lines of a floater/tear drop. His genuine hook shots are eerily reminiscent of a Kendrick Perkins shot.
Patterson is far more effective on these shots if he can square his body to the rim and then go up. When he does this he gets more arc on the shot and typically will get the ball past the front of the rim.
Something else I noticed about Patterson when watching his shots is that he has a very precise shooting routine on his catch and shoots. When the pass is sent out towards him takes a quick hop to get his body position properly, lands on his toes as the ball hits his hands and immediately lifts for the shot.
He brings the ball down a bit before rising for the shot, but it is still a very quick overall motion.
If he is caught out of rhythm and cannot go through his typical catch and release motions the shot has the potential to be horrendous.
In the past we’ve heard stories about how the Thunder work heavily with new players to acclimate them to the frequent less than perfectly accurate passes that Russ delivers. Aside from the fact I think the Thunder actually messes up player’s shots with this training, it really worries me about how effective Patterson might be shooting 3’s this year.
Now that I’ve ruined my excitement for his potential offensive additions let’s take a look at defense and see if that is any better.
Alright, mood recovered. Everything about this play is good to see. First, notice as the break is coming he has already gotten back into ideal position to stop the ball. When it is kicked to the wing runner, Patterson rotates over extraordinarily quickly. He is able to go straight up and get above the rim off of the quick pivot across the paint and smother the dunk attempt. It is fantastic transition defense, but it’s important to recognize the way he finishes the play. He is able to recover the block and begin the transition back. He starts the ball down finds a guard to push it faster (Derozan) then trails Demar the full length of the court ready for a drop off or a tip on a miss.
Here we see a bit of his post defense. Blake is trying to bully for deep post position, and Patterson does well to keep from getting pushed off balance. He hand checks to soften the blows Griffin delivers which allows him to make a quick movement and cut off the pass. If he doesn’t absorb those body blows with his arms, or stays back leaving a cushion Blake almost assuredly gets an easy 6 foot hook shot.
For the last play we see an example of the exact play the Thunder are hoping to get out of Patterson defensively this year. PPat is on Al Horford to start the play. IT has the ball on the right wing. Boston sets up the pick and roll between IT and Horford by having Jae Crowder come out to try and pick off Patterson as Horford heads to screen IT’s man. PPat gets over it easily, but IT is already making his move. Instead of backing off for fear of IT’s quickness or sticking to Horford and leaving Lowry hanging out to dry Patterson bodies up IT forcing him to pick up his dribble. This allows Lowry to recover onto IT. At the same time Horford begins to slip to the right corner. PPat immediately recognizes Horford’s actions and slides over to pick him back up. IT is out of sorts from the double team and throws a bad pass right to the now in perfect position Patterson. This is just excellent individual effort.
Overall, this was a pretty lukewarm primer for a player that I believe, and most Thunder fans believe will have a huge positive effect on this season. I have to remind myself that Patterson wasn’t expected to be an offensive force for us, that’s what Russ and PG are for. Instead, we needed a reliable shooter to place in the corners and free up the lane a bit. We also wanted a better defender at the 4 who could help out to the perimeter. This allows Steven Adams to stay at home defensively and not allow so many free rim runs. Consider the importance of this when you remember the Thunder allowed the second most shot attempts from 5 feet or less in the league. Thanks for reading. I doubt there will be a Ray Felton primer.
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