Justin Patton with another great game

[crazy-canuck [enjin:18955461]]

I like that Patton takes up space on the floor.

Opposing players just see arms stretched across the paint when they enter.

[SameOldNudityDrew]

For those of you who watched Patton's games, how's his defense? I like hearing what you say, crazy, about Patton using his length to intimidate opponents in the paint. Anybody have anything else to add about his D?

Getting buckets is not really as big a need for us, especially next to KAT, as a guy who can defend. We need another big who can help out on the defensive end.

[Monster]

For those of you who watched Patton's games, how's his defense? I like hearing what you say, crazy, about Patton using his length to intimidate opponents in the paint. Anybody have anything else to add about his D?

Getting buckets is not really as big a need for us, especially next to KAT, as a guy who can defend. We need another big who can help out on the defensive end.

Well...it's based on 2 games where he played backup minutes at a lower level so...well you asked so I take a shot at it.

He does go for some blocks that take him out of position but that's not too horrible I suppose unless it's all the time. There were a couple times in the last game where he was switched on a perimeter player and held his own. Once the ball handler ended up getting into the paint and that's as far as they went and passed it off because he stayed in front of them and they didn't get to the rim. Another time he stayed with a guy and the player dribbled the ball off his foot. He isn't the quickest guy out there but he is pretty nimble. He doesn't look like he has massively huge feet which might actually help him. They aren't small or anything* but yeah.

A couple times on the perimeter the player he was guarding took a 3. He was backed up guarding against the drive. The guy took the shot and he fairly easily contested because of his length and one of those times it was a decent sized big.

I'm not suggesting Patton is some sort of revelation defensively but there are some positive signs besides what was already posted about his size. He might get pushed around a bit but he also looks pretty big like he got a little stronger since college. Ivan Rabb who played well as a hard working guy looked smaller in every way.

One other comment about Patton. When it's a dead ball and he pick it up to give it to an official he seems to clearly have some coordination and flare to him he can do the kick the ball up to himself like Dieng does and sorta flip the ball around here and there tossing the ball behind the back to a ref etc. It looks really fluid not like some whatever guy that happens to play basketball espcially a guy that looks like a true center in height. That might be his former guard skills or maybe he is just pretty naturally coordinated. IMO it really stands out.

I'm just giving some positives here it's a really small sample at a lower level but it's kinda fun to have something to get a bit excited about. I mean this guy was the 16th pick in a draft that's looked pretty good so far. It's not like he is a guy that basically nobody had any interest in. We will see how it plays out.

* When I was in HS we played against a somewhat local church team one weekend and they had this pretty tall guy on their team. He was at least 6'5" but looked taller partly because he was pretty skinny. Anyway at one point we noticed his feet were pretty small someone asked what size he wore and what i remember him telling us he wore size 7 men's shoes!!! Regardless they were pretty small especially for someone that height. He wasn't a particularly experienced player as a guy probably in his 20's and I remember sitting on the bench and a couple of us would cringe when he came back on defense and stopped in the paint and would rock backwards on those little feet and we were convinced at some point the guy would just fall over backwards and crack his head on our cement gym floor. Fortunately it never happened.

[SameOldNudityDrew]

For those of you who watched Patton's games, how's his defense? I like hearing what you say, crazy, about Patton using his length to intimidate opponents in the paint. Anybody have anything else to add about his D?

Getting buckets is not really as big a need for us, especially next to KAT, as a guy who can defend. We need another big who can help out on the defensive end.

Well...it's based on 2 games where he played backup minutes at a lower level so...well you asked so I take a shot at it.

He does go for some blocks that take him out of position but that's not too horrible I suppose unless it's all the time. There were a couple times in the last game where he was switched on a perimeter player and held his own. Once the ball handler ended up getting into the paint and that's as far as they went and passed it off because he stayed in front of them and they didn't get to the rim. Another time he stayed with a guy and the player dribbled the ball off his foot. He isn't the quickest guy out there but he is pretty nimble. He doesn't look like he has massively huge feet which might actually help him. They aren't small or anything* but yeah.

A couple times on the perimeter the player he was guarding took a 3. He was backed up guarding against the drive. The guy took the shot and he fairly easily contested because of his length and one of those times it was a decent sized big.

I'm not suggesting Patton is some sort of revelation defensively but there are some positive signs besides what was already posted about his size. He might get pushed around a bit but he also looks pretty big like he got a little stronger since college. Ivan Rabb who played well as a hard working guy looked smaller in every way.

One other comment about Patton. When it's a dead ball and he pick it up to give it to an official he seems to clearly have some coordination and flare to him he can do the kick the ball up to himself like Dieng does and sorta flip the ball around here and there tossing the ball behind the back to a ref etc. It looks really fluid not like some whatever guy that happens to play basketball espcially a guy that looks like a true center in height. That might be his former guard skills or maybe he is just pretty naturally coordinated. IMO it really stands out.

I'm just giving some positives here it's a really small sample at a lower level but it's kinda fun to have something to get a bit excited about. I mean this guy was the 16th pick in a draft that's looked pretty good so far. It's not like he is a guy that basically nobody had any interest in. We will see how it plays out.

* When I was in HS we played against a somewhat local church team one weekend and they had this pretty tall guy on their team. He was at least 6'5" but looked taller partly because he was pretty skinny. Anyway at one point we noticed his feet were pretty small someone asked what size he wore and what i remember him telling us he wore size 7 men's shoes!!! Regardless they were pretty small especially for someone that height. He wasn't a particularly experienced player as a guy probably in his 20's and I remember sitting on the bench and a couple of us would cringe when he came back on defense and stopped in the paint and would rock backwards on those little feet and we were convinced at some point the guy would just fall over backwards and crack his head on our cement gym floor. Fortunately it never happened.

Thanks Monster, that's nice to hear about some defensive potential there.

It's also good to hear he seems to be pretty coordinated, which is a big plus in a big man. Hopefully he's the kind of guy who can use that to help him get blocks and steals and move his feet laterally to guard guys a bit on the perimeter.

When we traded down, I was hoping to get OG, and the Patton pick made no sense to me given that we already have Towns and Gorgui.

But since this guy's a project, who knows where we'll be in terms of needs in a couple years. I'm a big fan of using the G League team to really develop players much more before giving them regular minutes in the NBA, especially because Thibs runs such a short rotation, it's likely a guy like Patton wouldn't even get off the bench much next year.

The other thing is, I've been banking on Towns playing the 5 full-time long term, in which case, the Patton pick makes even less sense. But Towns' defensive weaknesses this year emphasize that we really need a good defender who can guard centers next to him, which Patton might become if he can put on size and is actually a good defender. Guys like Whiteside and Bynum came into the league kinda skinny or out-of-shape, and ended up becoming beasts as they got older. Hopefully that's the case with this kid.

[Lipoli390]

Monster -- Thanks for the great breakdown. I've watched a lot of video highlights of Patton from college and more recently the G-League. I've also read everything I could find on him since we drafted him.

Based one what I've seen and read, 4 positives stand out: (1) great hands, (2) accurate, controlled shot around the basket as evidenced by his tremendous 67.6% FG shooting in college, (3) his straight line speed and effort running the floor, and (4) his IQ. He seems to have good ball skills for a big man, perhaps stemming from his earlier years as a guard before his growth spurt, but I haven't seen enough to fully gauge.

However, I don't see anything about him that suggests he'll be a good, much less great, defender or a really good all-around big man in the NBA. Note that players's D-League (now G-League) stats tend to be better than their college stats. So the best objective predictor of Patton's potential are his college stats. Other than his FG%, there's nothing very impressive in those stats for a big man. He averaged 6.2 rebounds and 1.4 blocks in 25.3 minutes. That's 9.9 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per 40 minutes. Those aren't bad stats, but they're not the sort of stats that project anything close to an elite NBA big man, especially as a rebounder or rim protector. And his measurements don't stand out either with a 9'3.5" overhead reach and a 7'3" wingspan. Compare Patton's numbers to the following from their college careers:

Hassan Whiteside:
26 minutes, 8.9 rebounds, 5.4 blocks, 9'6 overhead reach, 7'7 wingspan

Gorgui Dieng: 9'3.5" overhead reach. 7'3.5" wingspan
FR: 15.5 Minutes, 4.4R, 1.9 blocks, 61.8% FG. Per 40 min: 11.4 rebounds, 5.0 blocks
SO: 32.8 Min., 9.1R, 3.2 blocks, 1.2 steals. Per 40 min: 11.1 rebounds, 3.9 blocks
JR: 31.1 Min., 9.4R, 3.2 blocks, 1.3 steals. Per 40 min: 12.1 rebounds, 3.2 blocks

Rudy Gobert played in Europe, so he doesn't have comparable college stats. But his measurements are off the charts wiht a 9'7" overhead reach and 7'8 wingspan.

John Collins averaged 11 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per 40 minutes his freshman year. He then averaged 9.8 rebounds and 2.4 blocks in 26 minutes his sophamore season. He also shots 62.2% from the field his sophomore season.

In general, how you rebound and block shots in college is how you rebound and block shots in the NBA -- only your numbers tend to go down a bit in the NBA. I'm sure there are exceptions, but not many. Obviously as a Wolves fan I really want Patton to be good. I'd rather be wrong about him because that means good things for the Wolves. But objective data we have so far tells me he won't be as good as Gorgui. There's certainly nothing in his college stats or length that suggests he'll be a defensive, rim-protecting center in the mold of a Hassan Whiteside or Rudy Gobert.

[Monster]

Monster -- Thanks for the great breakdown. I've watched a lot of video highlights of Patton from college and more recently the G-League. I've also read everything I could find on him since we drafted him.

Based one what I've seen and read, 4 positives stand out: (1) great hands, (2) accurate, controlled shot around the basket as evidenced by his tremendous 67.6% FG shooting in college, (3) his straight line speed and effort running the floor, and (4) his IQ. He seems to have good ball skills for a big man, perhaps stemming from his earlier years as a guard before his growth spurt, but I haven't seen enough to fully gauge.

However, I don't see anything about him that suggests he'll be a good, much less great, defender or a really good all-around big man in the NBA. Note that players's D-League (now G-League) stats tend to be better than their college stats. So the best objective predictor of Patton's potential are his college stats. Other than his FG%, there's nothing very impressive in those stats for a big man. He averaged 6.2 rebounds and 1.4 blocks in 25.3 minutes. That's 9.9 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per 40 minutes. Those aren't bad stats, but they're not the sort of stats that project anything close to an elite NBA big man, especially as a rebounder or rim protector. And his measurements don't stand out either with a 9'3.5" overhead reach and a 7'3" wingspan. Compare Patton's numbers to the following from their college careers:

Hassan Whiteside:
26 minutes, 8.9 rebounds, 5.4 blocks, 9'6 overhead reach, 7'7 wingspan

Gorgui Dieng: 9'3.5" overhead reach. 7'3.5" wingspan
FR: 15.5 Minutes, 4.4R, 1.9 blocks, 61.8% FG. Per 40 min: 11.4 rebounds, 5.0 blocks
SO: 32.8 Min., 9.1R, 3.2 blocks, 1.2 steals. Per 40 min: 11.1 rebounds, 3.9 blocks
JR: 31.1 Min., 9.4R, 3.2 blocks, 1.3 steals. Per 40 min: 12.1 rebounds, 3.2 blocks

Rudy Gobert played in Europe, so he doesn't have comparable college stats. But his measurements are off the charts wiht a 9'7" overhead reach and 7'8 wingspan.

John Collins averaged 11 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per 40 minutes his freshman year. He then averaged 9.8 rebounds and 2.4 blocks in 26 minutes his sophamore season. He also shots 62.2% from the field his sophomore season.

In general, how you rebound and block shots in college is how you rebound and block shots in the NBA -- only your numbers tend to go down a bit in the NBA. I'm sure there are exceptions, but not many. Obviously as a Wolves fan I really want Patton to be good. I'd rather be wrong about him because that means good things for the Wolves. But objective data we have so far tells me he won't be as good as Gorgui. There's certainly nothing in his college stats or length that suggests he'll be a defensive, rim-protecting center in the mold of a Hassan Whiteside or Rudy Gobert.

Lip you have posted basically this same stuff multiple times over the last few months. We get your take. Why not spend some time and actually watch a game that he plays in? The Iowa Wolves games are easily accessible on Facebook. You would get to see your guy (I'm on the bandwagon now too) Amile Jefferson also. It's a win win. :)

[Duke13]

I'm Not on Facebook, anywhere else I can watch past g-"league games of Patton? Thanks

[Monster]

I'm Not on Facebook, anywhere else I can watch past g-"league games of Patton? Thanks

That's a good question Duke. I just started watching the last game to see if I could watch without signing into Facebook. I signed into a guest account on my chromebook then went to the G-League site and found the game. I clicked to watch thegame on Facebook whiz always opens up the game on Facebook. I had to click a few times that's i didn't want to log in or create an account but I was able to do begin watching it. Most of the time it's pretty easy to use the scrub bar to jump ahead a few minutes so it probably takes just over an hour to watch a whole game if you are aggressive doing that.

They just announced this week that some games are going to be broadcast on Twitch which I have never heard of before. I'll probably only worry about learning more when the Wolves have a game on there.

[Monster]

Just finished watching the game it took less than 80 mins. Here are some thoughts.

Patton was a mixed bag. He had some pretty good moves in the post but often left them short. On the other hand he had some nice jumpers. On he went middle and did a turn around jumper and it looked very easy for him. He had a couple turnovers but also threaded a pretty nice pass for the 2nd straight game. He only had one block but it was kinda impressive. Grey a small guard was switched onto him and Grey got past him into the lane and went on the other side of the rim likely to be sure Patton would have no shot at blocking him. Patton covered a bunch of ground and blocked him easily. There were a number of plays where guards in the paint seemed to have no interest in challenging him. He didn't rebound as well as his 8 in 16 minutes but he did fine. His minutes early in the 4th weren't as good as earlier where Ali bet he was on the positive end of the plus minus. He still had the best one of those of other than Moore.

Tony Parker is a large guy and he had a nice post move for a score and took a couple steps towards the other end and went down in pain. I felt bad for the guy I guess he has been battling injuries all year.

Bryson continues to be intruiging as a defender. He had 2 blocks in this game and had a couple defensive possessions that were really impressive.

PerryJones has talent but tools some pretty bad shots.

This was one of the best games so have seen from Anthony Brown. He mostly let the game come to him or if he made a play he seemed more under control. He had a nice chase down block which was good to see.

Amile Jefferson is the Taj Gibson of the D-League. 21-14 in 27 minutes.

Millsap really struggled.

This was the best game I have ever seen from Wes Waspun. He was the better PG tonight if you wanted to be competitive. He his shots both midrange and 3's and he hustled and defended including another blocked shot. The guy is not big and is a backup guard and averages half a block a game.

Marquis Moore put in some good work in the 4th which was basically all garbage time but it was worth noting.

Wolves defense wasn't great most of the game but the Suns were hitting shots like crazy. I bet Booker has the games against the Wolves circles on his colander. He only had 21 but it felt like 30+ Meanwhile especially early in the game the Wolves got a lot of good looks and they just didn't go in. Xavier Silas that played for the Wolves SL team this year only got up 7 3's in his 21 minutes. Normally he gets up 9 per game in 30 mins. Booker takes 8pg. Anthony Brown leads the Wolves with 6.3pg. He would be 4th on the Suns. Lol suns take the 2nd most at 41.1 a game and Wolves are ahead of 3 other teams at 25.9.

[SameOldNudityDrew]

Just finished watching the game it took less than 80 mins. Here are some thoughts.

Patton was a mixed bag. He had some pretty good moves in the post but often left them short. On the other hand he had some nice jumpers. On he went middle and did a turn around jumper and it looked very easy for him. He had a couple turnovers but also threaded a pretty nice pass for the 2nd straight game. He only had one block but it was kinda impressive. Grey a small guard was switched onto him and Grey got past him into the lane and went on the other side of the rim likely to be sure Patton would have no shot at blocking him. Patton covered a bunch of ground and blocked him easily. There were a number of plays where guards in the paint seemed to have no interest in challenging him. He didn't rebound as well as his 8 in 16 minutes but he did fine. His minutes early in the 4th weren't as good as earlier where Ali bet he was on the positive end of the plus minus. He still had the best one of those of other than Moore.

Tony Parker is a large guy and he had a nice post move for a score and took a couple steps towards the other end and went down in pain. I felt bad for the guy I guess he has been battling injuries all year.

Bryson continues to be intruiging as a defender. He had 2 blocks in this game and had a couple defensive possessions that were really impressive.

PerryJones has talent but tools some pretty bad shots.

This was one of the best games so have seen from Anthony Brown. He mostly let the game come to him or if he made a play he seemed more under control. He had a nice chase down block which was good to see.

Amile Jefferson is the Taj Gibson of the D-League. 21-14 in 27 minutes.

Millsap really struggled.

This was the best game I have ever seen from Wes Waspun. He was the better PG tonight if you wanted to be competitive. He his shots both midrange and 3's and he hustled and defended including another blocked shot. The guy is not big and is a backup guard and averages half a block a game.


Great stuff, Monster. Thanks.

Also, PAUL MILLSAP IS ON OUR G-LEAGUE TEAM?!?! : ) Call that dude up.

Marquis Moore put in some good work in the 4th which was basically all garbage time but it was worth noting.

Wolves defense wasn't great most of the game but the Suns were hitting shots like crazy. I bet Booker has the games against the Wolves circles on his colander. He only had 21 but it felt like 30+ Meanwhile especially early in the game the Wolves got a lot of good looks and they just didn't go in. Xavier Silas that played for the Wolves SL team this year only got up 7 3's in his 21 minutes. Normally he gets up 9 per game in 30 mins. Booker takes 8pg. Anthony Brown leads the Wolves with 6.3pg. He would be 4th on the Suns. Lol suns take the 2nd most at 41.1 a game and Wolves are ahead of 3 other teams at 25.9.