Raptors will miss Patterson’s presence
Unless you’re the type of basketball fan who only looks at basic stats, it was impossible not to do a double-take when the contractual details of Patrick Patterson’s agreement in principle with the Oklahoma City Thunder broke.
In the real world, US$ 16.4 million over three years is a huge sum. In the current NBA universe, it’s a mere pittance, especially when one considers how key a cog Patterson has been during the most successful run in Raptors history.
Patterson was supposed to be merely a moderately useful piece of the Rudy Gay salary dump to Sacramento years ago and, indeed, he never averaged more than eight points a game or over 5.3 rebounds over a full season with the Raptors. He barely averaged a combined one block and steal, yet those numbers don’t do his contributions justice. Because he was nearly always in the right position defensively and because he made smart decisions with the ball without turning it over often, Patterson was able to post consistently gaudy plus/minus marks, despite not doing one thing at an elite level (his defensive positioning could be considered elite, perhaps).
The power forward trailed only Kyle Lowry in plus/minus in 2016-17 and led the club the prior season. He was second in 2014-15 behind Lou Williams. The club was 10 points better per 100 possessions in each of the past two seasons when Patterson was on the floor. Per Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca, Toronto was plus-1,004 with Patterson on the court over the past three seasons, minus-38 when he sat.
He shot 37 per cent on threepointers in Toronto, hitting 351 of his 411 career triples with the club.
Despite the gaudy advanced stats, Patterson wasn’t perfect. Some of his bigger misses on open three- pointers tended to stand out. He struggled as a defensive rebounder and a knee issue rendered him ineffective in the second half and playoffs last season (which is the best reasoning we’ve heard as to why the Thunder got him for so cheap, even if Patterson can opt out after two years).
Overall, though, like Amir Johnson before him, Patterson was criminally underrated and a major reason why good things happened for the Raptors when he was in the lineup.
Regardless of whether he will be able to get back to his old form with the Thunder, the Raptors now have a large hole at power forward, especially with P. J. Tucker taking his defensive talents to Houston. It’s difficult to see how they replace what that duo brought to the table.
Unless a deal can be found to unload some salary (DeMarre Carroll, Jonas Valanciunas or Cory Joseph) without salary coming back, the Raptors are too deep into the luxury tax to sign anyone of significance barring some magic by Masai Ujiri and Co. similar to bringing in Bismack Biyombo and then Luis Scola later in the summer for peanuts.