What is Patterson's ceiling on the defensive end? I thought this take from Jonathan Feigen was interesting -- its rare for him to be praise-worthy for a young player's defense: [rquoter] (Thanks. Jordan has athletic ability to be a fine shot-blocker and contest shots. He so far has not brought consistent effort and lacks awareness of what is going on around him, other than with his own man. I have not seen enough to say much about Patterson as a one-on-one defender. His help defense, however, looks to be outstanding. In terms of awareness about everything going on around him, he has Chuck Hayes potential. On tanking, it is very rare to lose as a way to build a winner, as teams could in the days of Hakeem, Ewing, Robinson and Duncan. Not only do players come out too soon for most to be sure things, the lottery makes tanking a poor bet. The team with the worst record rarely picks first. -- Jonathan) [/rquoter]
I like the Otis Thorpe comparison on the info we have. However I'm really in the "too early to tell" camp.
Thorpe didn't have the shooting touch Patterson has. We'll see if Patterson has the physicality Thorpe had. If he does, he will be better than Thorpe.
This will be a perect time for Patterson to be thrown into the fire. He will have the chance to go up against some of the leagues best playes in the next few weeks. If he could at leat become Chuck-like with his defense, then we may not need to get another center. With him and Hill in the paint to protect the rim, we would have something to work with. Now with Patterson in the rotation and Hill having been in the rotation, they could both have this time to operate together instead of one or the other on the floor with Miller.
PatPat's ceiling is definately an all-star caliber player!!! But in reality, I could see him having a Horace Grant-like career.
OT made the All Star game in 1992 as a reserve and finished his career with over 17,000 points and 10,000 boards. If Patterson does as well, I'll be doing cartwheels! Patterson already looks to have an NBA ready body, something Jordan Hill is still working on. He'll never have OT's freakish hands, though. I'm not sure if I've ever seen hands bigger than his. One of the things I like about Patrick is that he looks like a man out there. I love his demeanor on the court. All business.
He graduated in 3 years. So there was no reason for him to go back. I'm sure he meant type of player, not production. A player can have the same points/rebound totals and be totally different players in terms of styles. Patterson's obviously more finesse, and Thorpe more of a banger inside. I can't really see PP ever play the way Thorpe did. I think he's really more of a well-rounded type of player, with no incredible strength but also no real weaknesses. Thorpe was a player with very clear strengths and weaknesses.
I wouldn't argue with that. Heck, OT didn't occur to me until I saw Jackie make the comparison, and I realized some more folks had. We simply haven't seen enough of Patterson to draw realistic conclusions yet. He very well might end up a more well-rounded player. I hope so. Patrick looks like a banger to me, though, which is where the OT comparison holds up (IMO). Rugged and no nonsense, which we really really needed with his size. Personally, I like the "a taller Chuck Hayes with a jumper and shot blocking potential" as a comparison, which would be amazing if that played out. Early days.
I wish for once our bigs would be tougher. Almost oakley/thorpe like with hard fouls and such. This team needs nastiness along the frontline. They have guys who play hard,but they don't have the bruising type to forge that identity. Hopefully Hill and patterson can use there size to intimidate some.
yeah we got too many backseat type of players, complete with childproof locks on the doors, they need to stick a dog in the backseat with those players, so it can lick their faces...
Did Thorpe deliver a lot of hard fouls? He was tough and strong, no doubt, but I don't remember him being an Oakley / Mahorn sort of player. Your memory is probably better than mine.
He delivered a lot of hard fouls. Not intentionally so much, as was the case with the pair you mentioned, but can you imagine being slapped in the face by OT the way Brooks slapped Wade? With those hands?? Ouch! Otis hurt a lot of guys on the court. He just didn't go out of his way to do it, IMO.
Sure, that I can see. I never thought of him as a "nasty" player, a guy with a mean streak. He was tough and strong and when he fouled you felt it, but never malicious. More of a Chuck Hayes type, plus 4 inches of height.
Oakley and mahorn were boderline dirty, thorpe was just a tough s.o.b. Alot of guys were scared of thorpe because of his massiveness. I remember talking to kenny and he was talking about about how he and otis got into an altercation. It was big enough that both guys were talking like, wait till we get in the locker room type of noise. Kenny said he was never so sacred in his life,lol. If guys know when they come to the rim they will get contested or a hard foul, it changes them some. I havent seen a hard foul on this team since Howard was playing. Miller will give one, but no one else will. Patterson and Hill should give hard fouls. They're the physical types who can somewhat intimidate guys coming to the rim.
Couldn't agree more. Yao intimidated with his sheer size. No one else on the Rocks has yet to show themselves as an old school intimidator. We could use one.
