Casperkid23 wrote:Worm Guts wrote:Casperkid23 wrote:Patterson could slide to the 3 just as easily as Gomes.
I just think Patterson's skillset clearly favors him to be a 4. I guess he could be forced out of position to fill a team need like Gomes, but I think Patterson is a much better 4 than Gomes.
We're going to have to disagree a little bit then. For one telling stat, out of all the guys I track on my quality opponent stat tracker, Patterson has the worst Reb/36 numbers out of all the SFs, PFs, and Cs (26 players - so no Turner/George/Anderson who are seen as SG/SFs). Playing next to a brutish Cousins likely has something to do with it, but even when Cousins is off the floor he's not cleaning the glass at a high rate.
As far as playstyle, yes, he needs another player to create for him, otherwise he lives off garbage buckets, which makes him appear more like a PF - but I really am not seeing him being starting PF material in the NBA given his lack of height and his strength advantage will all but disappear in the NBA, and his potential defensive issues will be more glaring against the bigger/longer players in the NBA. So for him to get the maximum amount of minutes, he, like Gomes, is going to have to keep tweaking his game so he can see the floor. That's one of the main reasons why I think he added the 3pt shot to his game this year.
Right now is he more of a PF in the NBA? Yes, but he only projects as a bench player in the spot otherwise he'd be a big weak point. Maybe he can pull a David West and shock the world - but David West played bigger than Patterson and he could, to an extent, create for himself thus creating mismatches on offense from the PF spot. I think by giving a team minutes at SF, Patterson can become much more of a mismatch problem on offense and defensively he's got the tools to maybe become adequate.
Just look at his numbers. He averaged 9.3 rebounds per game last year without Cousins. 7.7 this year. I think most would say Patterson projects as a Paul Milslap player at the next level.















