http://kilt.cbslocal.com/2010/06/25/patrick-patterson-2/ Spoiler H: Pleased to be join by Rockets draft pick Patrick Patterson. Appreciate you joining us. PP: Thank you for having me. H: What's it like to come to Houston and meeting members of your new team? PP: It's great. Finally to have a home, finally being wanted by an organization, having a team have that trust in you. It's great. Soaking it all in. Surreal moment and feels like fantasy. So blessed right now. H: Rockets said they had you 6th on their board. Did you have an idea if you lasted they were going to take you? PP: No idea. As picks kept going on and on, I was getting nervous. I got worried a little bit but glad Rockets picked me up. H: Patrick Patterson joining us. H: What was it like having to adjust from being the guy or one of the guys to taking a backseat to the other superstars there last year? PP: It was tough at first. Being use to being the man. Coming in junior year, as I said, tough in the beginning but I looked at the bigger picture. I realized my teammates were better than me. My teammates could score. I realized my job could be easier if we jelled together. H: Patrick, we had Daryl on, we talked about former Astros media relations guy working there at Kentucky, and said you were the go to guy for media, you were the smartest, and most mature. How important to be a leader. Do you have to earn it here, and would you like to have the same role eventually? PP: Eventually I would like to but I have to earn it. Have to earn everything I want and earn everything I want to keep. I could see that here in Houston. All about earning it and putting the work in. H: You were a banger in the post. Played with Cousins, and I know you had to have gone 1-1. Battles like in practice? PP: It was tough. It was frustrating. Early he was getting me a bunch of times and I was getting him a few times but as year progressed, we did rebouding drills and post up stuff and 5-5 drills. Tough guy, hard to move around. Our battles went back and forth. H: You played for 2 interesting coaches. Can you compare them? PP: Gillespie a great coach. I loved him. Introduced me to college basketball. Introduced me how to play hard and tough. I have him to thank. His game was picks, game more inside-out and work around that. With Coach Cal, more about dribble-drive, motion, no one walking around. A lot of that with Coach Cal. Allowed me to play on the perimeter. I have him to thank for that. Improved my perimeter game, jump shot, and overall confidence. Definately have their differences but helped me to the man I am right now. H: Most thing you need to work on? PP: Defense. Wanna be able to guard in the post and also on the perimeter. Defense is what I wanna focus on. Though really so much other, like offense, ball-handling, running, rebounding. Defense is what I'm looking forward to. H: Patrick Patterson joining us. H: Many teammates came out after 1 year. How did it benefit you to stay 3 years? PP: Allowed me to get my degree. Gave me experience. Great tradition and program. Winning and championships. From basketball, prepared me for future with NBA. H: We dont see many lottery picks make millions of dollars, you got your degree in less than 4 years, right? PP: Yessir. H: Why is that so important? Your profession is the NBA. You're gonna make millions from this contract and future contracts. Why is that so important, to what many is an afterthough in college basketball? PP: Life after basketball. Never know what is gonna happen. Injury or once career is over, gotta get money/income afterwards. So I think my degree will help me out. No one can take your degree away. Not many out there who have degrees, especially athletes. Degree is important. H: Major? PP: Communications and leadership development H: Can you explain that? PP: Basically, getting people to follow you. Doing the right things. How you can get people to follow you, how you can get people to get behind you. Doing things the right way, having good influence. H: One more for you, talking about playing at Kentucky, playing at Rupp, how do you think playing at that environment readies you for NBA environment. Maybe not so much competition, but media spotlight and things of that nature? PP: At Kentucky, always in the spotlight. I know at the NBA, media all the time. At Kentucky, we were recognized. And if we did something wrong, its in the newspaper or online. Same things in the NBA. H: Patrick Patterson, 14th overall, we appreciate the time. Thank you. http://kilt.cbslocal.com/2010/06/25/daryl-morey/ Spoiler H: Pleased to be joined by Rockets GM Daryl Morey DM: Special day(laughs) H: Special days for you all too bringing in Patrick Patterson. Can you describe the scene in the draft room leading up to the pick and Ed Davis right before you's. DM: Nerve-racking. Patrick was our 6th best guy. Best guy we thought we could get. Worked hard to moved up and were willing to move some assets to get there. Couldnt get that done so some good fortune came our way. We'll take that because we had some bad with injuries and stuff. H: What about Patrick that had him ranked 6th on your board? DM: Yeah, we think he is better than the media for sure, and some teams looking at him. He's a versatile big. True size at the 4. Very long. Athletic. Work ethic to hit any heights he wants to. Can come in and play in a NBA rotation right now. We're such a deep team, I dont know how many minutes he'll get early. Can play both ends. Complete player at the 4. H: Daryl Morey is our guest. We talked to Patrick last night. Stand up guy. Took lesser role this year. How much of your liking if you will had to do with the fact he took a backseat for the betterment. DM: Part of it. A little more was he could play 5 and the 4. 4 is where he will see most of his minutes in the NBA. Could be an effective 5 and 4. Could handle big time recruits, maybe like getting bumped over or the spotlight to someone else. Focused all the time on winning. Worked hard on and off the floor. Big part of our culture we value H: You spoiled everyone by moving around, and doing trades and when you stay put, people are disappointed. ... Why do you think the media, as you said, seems not to have him weighted like you guys. Why so? DM: Happened with Chase last year. Guys who have that level of talent that stay, which is shocking, we call it scout wariness. They sorta get used to them and forget about them when the new shiny object of the freshman come in. Those are guys we look at as well but we really think the guys who are SRs and JRs who scouts have seen a lot, they dont seem as sexy because maybe they have holes in their games which might have been exposed a little more where as freshman you dont see as much. Maybe there is a niche there and we think we found it in the last 2 years. H: Last night, the ESPN analysts were talking about Patterson was not big enough, he'll have to play SF. I was wondering what or who are they looking at. DM: Yeah thats just wrong. I dont understand that. You can look any way you want(measurements, athleticism, wingspan) and we have more data than any other club in the league and he is the average 4 in the NBA. Comparable to a Al Horford who even slides to the 5. True size for 4, undersized for the 5. At the 4, not oversized, but not certainly undersized. H: Things played out well last night, got the guy you want. Good going into next season or what should we expect going into July 1st? I know you're not going to roll out the names(other H: roll out the names) but does this lessen the need for a big man? DM: (laughing) You wanna get me fined don't you? I already had to give the commish a lot of my money. I would say this doesnt change anything in FA. Totally unrelated. Chasing elite talent. Elite talent with experience. We're still going to go after that. Position of where we draft is unrelated to the roster. Most mistakes made in the draft are by that. We drafted Aaron when we had 4 PGs. Patrick trying to crack into tough rotation. Just felt he was the best player. H: You mentioned elite talent. Frontcourt? Backcourt? Still happy with Aaron, Kevin and Ariza in 1-2-3 role? DM: I've been advised by Rockets not to even mention the position we're chasing. To answer what I can, we're comfortable with our 1-2-3 spot. Read into that what you will H: Worried about other teams coming in offering Scola, Lowry offers that might be tough to match? They're restricted and I know you got the greenlight, but worried that if other teams come in and if you have to match, it'll take you out the running of other FAs? DM: No, not worried. The FAs we're chasing are all S&T or at the rotation level, or mid level exception. That wont change based on what Luis and Lowry end up getting. H: Because everyone, including your boss, has said that they dont expect Yao to opt out, what's keeping him from saying so? DM: Yeah I cant comment on that. We'll have an annoucement in a few days. H: Why cant you comment on that? Will you get fined for that too? DM: (laughing) Comment on comment? I think we'll have an annoucement in a few days. H: Do/will you have too many players? Will you have to do a S&T? You got a lot of players. Good or bad? DM: It's good. Going into FA, the FAs we're chasing are S&T, except for some non-elite guys. But primarily, S&T and having more good players is good. H: Thanks for joining us DM: Thanks for having me on. Appreciate it.
"PP: Communications and leadership development H: Can you explain that? PP: Basically, getting people to follow you. Doing the right things. How you can get people to follow you, how you can get people to get behind you. Doing things the right way, having good influence." You've all been fooled! :grin:
Both of those were very good reads. Thanks! Interesting reading about Patterson playing against Cousins in practice. You got a strong impression that Cousins was a load. Morey had some interesting comments, as well. Sounded like we will be getting an announcement regarding Yao's status soon.
This is a case where it is definitely better not to say IMO. But if you have to than I suggest you add another M, IMMO (In My Moronic Opinion). Just a thought.
Great read. Repp'd. He's already working out with Jordan Hill. Don't know about you but he's further along than I expected.
Wow, a lot of inside information from Daryl Morey there. He basically confirmed what some CF have speculated, that Moreyball tends to wind up drafting upperclassmen as opposed underclassmen. Another thing is that he hinted at is that we're focusing on 4s and 5s (power forwards and centers) in the FA market, whether through free agency or SnT, rather than upgrades at PG, SG, or SF. I guess that means Bosh or Amare, based on Clutch's shows of support. Although I'm worried about our backcourt defense still.
Not sure if this is a secret, after the Rockets drafted Brooks, Landry, Dorsey, Bud and Patt under Morey. The scouting fatigue theory makes a lot of sense.... the Houston4Bosh discussion has been going on for a couple of months and I'm tired of Chris Bosh already even though he's no doubt an elite player. I just want something new and shiny to talk about.
I'm a huge proponent of Morey. It's odd how the media thinks that only Ny, Miami, and Chicago will be fighting for those big time FA. With all the assets we have and the money Les is willing to spend......I definitely see us getting an elite player whether its bosh or someone else.
Lol the leash is on for radio interviews, even though Morey doesn't want to get fined again he's still letting us know more than most GM's would ever tell us. Another reason he's the best GM in the NBA. Sam Presti might be good, but look at his starting line-up. Lotto picks 1 thru 5 with Westbrook (#3), Harden (#3), Durant (#2), Green (#5), and Ibaka/Aldrich (#10-11). Yeah, you would have higher expectations for that kind of team. Buford's good too but Duncan fell in his lap; he would have fielded good teams without him but honestly 0 championships. No, Morey's the best. He does the most with the least and you can tell he really cares about growing the fan base since he continues to divulge more than any other GM would just to give us diehards something to feed on.
