Or is it just a fluke? The four games he started, the opponents scored: Phoenix 93 Charlotte 78 Boston 77 Clippers 78 Average 81.5 These teams score on average for the season: Phoenix 105 Charlotte 93 Boston 97 Clippers 99 Average 98.5
Yes. Especially with Chuck out there with him. Sometimes i find myself forgetting that this kid is still a rookie. He will only get better. Unbelievable pick by Morey and he has a chance to do it again this draft. Can you believe some people wanted to pick Larry Sanders instead?
That's Chuck Hayes. Haven't you heard? 70% of Earth surface is covered by water. The rest is covered by Chuck Hayes.
All I know is Pat blocked a Blake Griffin dunk that was about to lay waste to Houston and the surrounding area; good enough D for me.
What I love about Pat is he isn't afraid of getting posterized AT ALL. He has been posterized several times already, but he still goes up like Mutombo. He also never takes a charge. Pat's determination paid off today when he stuffed Griffin. Good job Pat.
Martin/Budinger/Scola are a bigger problem than getting a traditional center when it comes to defense, imo. Patterson makes our defense at the PF that much better, because finally someone helps Chuck out. If you put AK47 or Thad Young at the 3, the defense gets even better, top 10 even...WITHOUT a traditional C...
His one-on-one defense is solid but not great - at least not yet. It's his team and help defense that makes him so good. His court awareness is outstanding. And perhaps more importantly, he rarely takes a play off. It's that consistent effort that makes him doubly effective and dangerous. He also keeps himself from picking up silly fouls, which is a rare rookie/young player trait IMO. By contrast, Hill often got limited playing time even when he was doing well because he got in foul trouble.
Patterson is not an elite defender, he's more like a "Courtney Lee" type of player right now...he's solid on both ends of the game but not elite by any means, the only difference is Lee, PP doesn't have mental lapses every 3rd game. Why has the team defense seemed so great when he was a starter? Several factors come into play here: 1. PP is a much better defender than Scola 2. Brooks played a lot pre trade (when PP was glued to the bench for absolutely no reason), now Brooks is gone 3. Hayes adapted to the C position as the season went on. When the season first started players like GS would end up in a layup line at the rox basket, nowadays that doesn't happen as often because the Chuck Wagon became better at defending the paint. Honestly if you ask me I'd say reason 2 is the best explanation. Brooks playing no d and shooting 1-8 for the entire game really hurt us a lot.
I don't disagree that Brooks is bad for the defense. But even after the trade, the Rockets still gave up an average of 105 points when Patterson was not starting. Also, your third point doesn't make sense. Hayes has been playing C alongside Scola for two years now.
Active hands and active feet. High bball IQ. Will only get better with experience.. I'm excited to see this rookie blossom, no homo.
