Minnesota Sports Forum

I'm going in blind on Patton. I saw this table on an NBA draft thread on reddit, but it's concerning he didn't grade out well in the combine among he peers when you hear attributes like his athleticism and how he runs the floor as positives. He's got similar grades to Kennedy Meeks in almost every category.
[table]
[tr]
[th]Test[/th]
[th]Patton[/th]
[th]Meeks[/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Lane Agility[/td]
[td]11.80[/td]
[td]12.91[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Shuttle Run[/td]
[td]3.31[/td]
[td]3.35[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Sprint[/td]
[td]3.46[/td]
[td]3.50[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Standing Vert[/td]
[td]26.0[/td]
[td]28.0[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Max Vert[/td]
[td]30.5[/td]
[td]30.5[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

I'll concede the combine is not all that meaningful, but it's interesting how close he is to fat Kennedy Meeks on 4/5 tests.

foye2smith wrote:I'm going in blind on Patton. I saw this table on an NBA draft thread on reddit, but it's concerning he didn't grade out well in the combine among he peers when you hear attributes like his athleticism and how he runs the floor as positives. He's got similar grades to Kennedy Meeks in almost every category.
[table]
[tr]
[th]Test[/th]
[th]Patton[/th]
[th]Meeks[/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Lane Agility[/td]
[td]11.80[/td]
[td]12.91[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Shuttle Run[/td]
[td]3.31[/td]
[td]3.35[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Sprint[/td]
[td]3.46[/td]
[td]3.50[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Standing Vert[/td]
[td]26.0[/td]
[td]28.0[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Max Vert[/td]
[td]30.5[/td]
[td]30.5[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

I'll concede the combine is not all that meaningful, but it's interesting how close he is to fat Kennedy Meeks on 4/5 tests.

I think you may be onto something. Those tests are IMO pretty much meaningless. For fun go look up those numbers from guys ovwr time and you will see this stuff is silly for the most part. 2014 is fun because a bunch of the media folks did their combine numbers. Lol that's about how serious we should take most of these numbers. Verticle? Sure I guess but the rest of the stuff is nearly worthless IMO.

Just listened to the introductory press conference. The thing that went through my head is I hope this kid turns out to be a big man version of Jimmy Butler.

kekgeek1 wrote:He reminds me of payne in terms of skill set. Now I hope he has a lot higher IQ

Interesting that you would mention Payne as a possible comparison. Referring to Patton in his post-draft press conference, Thibs said something to the effect that "our scouts really liked him." At that moment I recalled Flip saying the exactly same thing in reference to Payne right after we traded for him. The thought that ran through my head was, I sure hope it's not the same set of scouts. My fear is that they are mainly the same.

I've always been impressed by Payne's combination of skills, athleticism and size. But the reason I had no interest in him coming out of college was his failure to produce rebounds and/or blocked shots on par with his combination of skills, athleticism and size.

Patton has a similarly impressive combination of size and skills, although I'm not sure he's quite as athletic as Payne. And unfortunately, he also exhibited similarly mediocre production those key big-man areas of rebounding and shot-blocking. But here are what I consider to be significant differences. First and foremost, Payne was putting up mediocre rebounding and shot-blocking numbers as a 4-year college senior while Patton's numbers came as a redshirt freshman. Second, Payne was always a big man while Patton had a late growth spurt that converted him to a big man and required him to adjust to his new frame. Third, the limited videos I've seen of Patton show a guy with post moves that are already better than the ones Payne shows even today as a 3-year NBA player. So while I would have drafted John Collins at #16, I'm pleased with Thibs' choice of Patton and I'm hopeful he'll develop into at least a solid NBA player in time.

But I sure hope we don't have the same exact scouts who sold Flip on Payne. :)

A couple more comments on Patton.

Lip mentioned Thibs saying the scouts really liked him etc. I wondered if that meant this was Thibs just deferring to the scouts, giving them credit or...what. Today at the PC he broke down his game and Layden went out of his way to say this is the scouts time to shine. It seemed this was more giving legit recognition to scouts than not really owning the pick passing the buck etc. Was Thibs pounding the table for this guy? Probably not but it seemed very much like a consensus pick and he seems to clearly like him.

A couple thoughts from the Nebraska game I linked to.

First when I saw him in person I wasn't planning to go to the game but I ended up finishing volunteering that night very early and the game didn't start till 8p. I snagged a ticket from a scalper and got in a few minutes into the game. When I showed up the Huskers started to play better! Because I hadn't planned to go to the game a forgot about Patton being a guy that was supposed to be like good and stuff and I probably missed a chunk of the time he played early on. He didn't jump out at me but I do remember thinking he moved more like a PF than a center. I wasn't positive he was a 7' or close guy. It turns out he is.

Rewatching the game yesterday I noticed a couple things.

Generally speaking he is also ways looking to box a guy out. He had a time or 2 when he wasn't aware and a guy got the rebound but generally when the shot went up he was looking for a body. Sometimes Ed Marrow beat him for a board. Ed is like 6'6" maybe but the guy does work down there. I'm still baffled as to why he transferred to try and transform himself into a wing. I don't see it. Anyway in general Nebraska's bigs aren't that great although Jordy really came on down the stretch. They hustle though and Patton didn't get embarrassed and put forth effort pretty much all the time.

The ball doesn't stick in his hands. At least one defensive rebound he snagged it tough it down and quickly tossed it to the guard. It's like he knew exactly what he was going to do when he got the rebound. He generally quickly moved the ball on offense. The one time he didn't he dribbled the ball behind his back first and then ended up moving the ball I think or maybe he took the shot I can't remember.

He missed FTs and they said during the game he was shooting 43% coming into the game. So...finishing at around 54% he improved somewhat as the year went on. He has a decent looking shot so it's reasonable to hope he will improve there.

Q is gonna love this kid. He said he is confident but also willing to work hard through the process working hard whether than D-league etc. He doesn't seem to have much of an ego.

The Patton pick is kinda weird to me.

With the Butler trade, it makes sense to get a guy who can contribute soon, and ideally at a position of need. Patton is the opposite of that. He's a pretty raw, high upside guy who plays a position where we already have Towns and Dieng.

Maybe he pans out (I'm kinda skeptical), maybe he doesn't. Either way, we probably won't know for 2-3 years.

There were other guys available who might not have the upside, but were ready to contribute sooner, were not such long shots, and/or would have fit a role better for us. I think there were a bunch of forwards who went late in the first round and early second round who could etch out a nice role for themselves in the NBA.

I hope Patton proves me wrong, but that pick just left me scratching my head.

SameOldDrew wrote:The Patton pick is kinda weird to me.

With the Butler trade, it makes sense to get a guy who can contribute soon, and ideally at a position of need. Patton is the opposite of that. He's a pretty raw, high upside guy who plays a position where we already have Towns and Dieng.

Maybe he pans out (I'm kinda skeptical), maybe he doesn't. Either way, we probably won't know for 2-3 years.

There were other guys available who might not have the upside, but were ready to contribute sooner, were not such long shots, and/or would have fit a role better for us. I think there were a bunch of forwards who went late in the first round and early second round who could etch out a nice role for themselves in the NBA.

I hope Patton proves me wrong, but that pick just left me scratching my head.

Draft picks just shouldn't be counted on for much in year 1. There aren't really NBA ready prospects anymore especially when talking about all these 1 and done guys. The speed of the game is just vastly different. I think Thibs knew he was gonna be making his splashes in free agency and trades and still needed to keep the cupboard stocked for the future. We have G and Belly (expiring) so far at the 4 and we might get another 4 this summer. Patton gets to develop likely in the G League for a year or two before we even really have to try him at this level to see if he is worth an extension. He was as good as any for a potential/development guy at that point in the draft. Drafting guys for early production just rarely seems to work. It just takes time to adjust so why not get a guy with a high upside and try to develop him into what you need? Getting a guy at 16 and playing him a bunch would just put a net negative player on the court for us and we just can't keep doing that every year.

Wolfson tweeted out some HS footage of Patton today. It's interesting to see how he has filled out and also his shooting.

https://twitter.com/dwolfsonkstp/status/879881511805300736

I still am a Portis fan. I wonder if they would have trade us him instead of the 16th pick.

bleedspeed177 wrote:I still am a Portis fan. I wonder if they would have trade us him instead of the 16th pick.

I was a fan of his innthat draftvand to be honest so far he has been underwhelming but looking at the stats he seemed to come on late last year when he got minutes. That block rate is troubling as it's basically the same as Wiggins.