I noticed that people seem to be mad at Jordan Hill a lot, while they seem to hold Patterson in high regard. I can remember a lot of posts advocating trading Scola in order to give Patterson his minutes. Everyone seems to be happy to throw in Hill in just about any trade, while they want to keep Patterson under all circumstances. Their stats are pretty similar: Hill: .511 FG .688 FT 16 MPG 5.5 PTS 5.8 REB 0.8 BLK 15.2 PER Patterson: .481 FG .500 FT 20 MPG 6.3 PTS 3.4 REB 0.4 BLK 12.2 PER So Patterson does less in more minutes (especially rebounding-wise), his %% are worse than Hill's, but I feel like I have observed a few more things: - Hill usually has the tougher defensive assignment (like Duncan yesterday) - Hill has to play the bigger guys - Hill seems to hustle more and try harder - Hill shows some emotion when something goes wrong, while Patterson always has the same stare - While Patterson's jump shot looks smoother and he probably has a bit more range, Hill's jump shot is not too bad either and he gets more effort points (putbacks) - Patterson seems to get more uncontested shots (like those from the baseline against the Spurs last night) - I know Patterson was injured, but we are more than 20 games into the season, doesn't seem like a good excuse anymore - Hill appears to have more hops - Hill is the better shotblocker and clearly the better rebounder - Very often, Patterson doesn't seem to even try to go for the rebound - Hill is the better defender Please correct me if I'm wrong, but why does the large majority of the board cut Patterson a lot of slack and wants to give him more minutes whereas pretty much everyone is always upset with Hill and wants to throw him into trades? Is it because Hill seems more "gangsta" than Patterson? I know Patterson looked really promising last season, but he seems to have regressed, and I am not sure he has the fire to ever become nearly as good as Scola still is. In my opinion, both are expendable, but if I had to choose solely based on performance so far, I would trade Patterson before Hill. And if it ever appears to be the dealbreaker that another team wants Patterson, I'd say trade him before the league catches on to the fact that he has actually regressed. If he is not traded, I hope he will prove me wrong, but he has been very unimpressive so far this season. The main thing I miss when watching him is fire and hustle. Many times he just seems to be there, content to not put his stamp on the game...kind of the opposite of Parsons, who seems to hustle all the time.
You have been too hard on Patterson. Guy's PER was around 6 at the beginning.... he has worked his way towards 12, 13.
PPat has not looked as good this year. His rebounding is pathetic and he doesn't mix it up enough inside. I hope it's just part of coming back from the ankle surgery. Hill has certainly turned into a good rebounder and does look better than Pat to me.
Hill has been better than patterson this season despite playing out of position. The rockets should dump scola and let these 2 split the minutes. Patterson can still be a harace grant type, but he's nothing special either. Solid role player with limited upside.
I still don't understand why they didn't pick up Hill's contract. 2 million for a kid that is serviceable at back up center isn't bad at all. I think if he'd got to play the 4, he would be much better. His jump shot is pretty decent.
Hill didn't have surgery in the offseason. Patterson has been playing under that handicap. Hill is the better rebounder, but I'm not sure by how much because I feel like Patterson's injury really sapped his athleticism. And the reason Hill's percentages are higher than Patterson's is that he gets a ton of easy putbacks off his rebounds.
At least he is there for them. Patterson doesn't seem to try that much. Even Parsons, who is clearly not as strong as Patterson, mixes it up more inside.
I agree...there is WAY to much love for PPat on these boards. He might not ever be the same player, and he was never really that impressive in the first place. All I have ever seen him do is hit 15 footers. He isn't a good finisher, or really that good of a rebounder. He also seems to play smaller than his size (Carl Landry played much bigger). Jordan started off having a pretty bad season, w/ some ugly looking post moves. He has shown me these past few games his true potential, and become much more consistent. Jordan has much more upside that Patterson, so I think we should keep him around.
horace grant's athleticism more than made up for his lack of a post game. horace used to cut to the basket for easy layups and dunks when the opportunity presented itself. patterson can't even do that. bad comparison.
ppat just isn't the same... last year he showed promise and this year not so much...i agree with leebigez, trade scola and let these two battle for the minutes majority(who would obviously be hill just for the simple fact he backs up the center as well)...scola is starting to irratate me more and more as the season goes on and while he is better then both hill and ppat right now, i say its time to see what we can get out of him and what happpens with ppat and hill gettting more quality minutes...
Jordan Hill is more talented for sure. He can finish around the basket better and grabs more rebounds. However, PPat is smarter and understands the game better. But with this year's coaching I think the light is starting to turn on for Hill a little bit. Not that previous coaching was bad, but he seems to be finally "getting it."
It's a flawed comparison. PatPat was hurt for the early part of the season and has only been coming on the past 6-8 games. Hill is in his third season and has not shown much promise; he's often clumsy on the court, and I think the Rockets decided not to extend him is because they see his potential as being limited. Patterson showed lots of flashes last year, and when given time really developed his game. As the season goes on, he's got to become more consistent, and after another season on the team we'll probably be more critical of PatPat if he hasnt demonstrated serious improvement from where he's at right now.
This is a case where statistics doesn't really tell the story. Patterson is the better power forward. Hill is the better center. But Hill is a very inadequate center. Yes, Patterson is coming back from injury and it is hampering him. However, he has way more potential than Hill. Hill has a classic weakness that usually takes down the best of players. An unstable family situation that he does not adequately control. He lets them control him. It will eventually kill his career and it has already severely hampered and limited his upside.
Other than a smooth jump shot, what has he developed? He certainly has not improved his rebounding, which is horribly bad for a power forward.
While I understand the reasoning, I think this is too early to call this comparison. Last year PPatt was a different player, we were talking about him as a Scola type of guy that can hit the 15 footer + play strong defense. This year he is timid and just in past few games has gotten better at hitting his jumper and you see him jumping some to try to block shots. But, he's not back yet in my opinion. Do you remember last year he had some pretty crazy explosion dunking that we weren't expecting? Thats not there, but give him time. He had the surgery so he'd stop having to hurt every time he played. I would think that would take a while to get back to full strength jumping on it. So, give PPatt time and he'll show you why we were so high on him over Jhill. If Jhill keeps playing like he is playing, then maybe he's worth holding on to, but remember we always see flashes of a good player with him and then we see flashes of frustration.
Patterson's team defense is outstanding. His rotations are quick and decisive. He has a perfect feel for just how long to show on a pick-and-roll, where he can disrupt the ballhandler, but still get back to his man. He doubles at just the right time. It's almost like he and Chuck Hayes went to the same college.
A big part of it is just inferring what the Rockets themselves think of these two players. It is clear that the Rockets have much more hope regarding Patterson than Hill. Patterson was their pick. Patterson has been getting more consistent minutes, especially in the second half. I also think that the way the coach talks about both players, its evident that he is more hopeful that Patterson can grow into the better player. In terms of actual performance, you have to take into account that Hill is in his 3rd year. He has had the benefit of more games and more coaching at the professional level. Patterson played well last season, and he did not have much of an opportunity to really improve himself in the summer. There has been relatively limited practice time. And his injury clearly set him back. You can see the athleticism isn't where it was a year ago.
Exactly. Here's the game vs. the Pistons where he scored 20: <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/I4zBTmHzy8I" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
