4 OKC Thunder players who need to up their game this season

Patrick Patterson:

Patrick Patterson admittedly feels out of place on a list like this. After all, he’s an eight-year veteran who played key roles on some of the best teams in the Eastern Conference and at one point was an advanced analytics darling who was featured in some of the best line-ups in the entire league. But, since joining the Thunder last summer, something has been off with Patterson.

Like Ferguson, he was never an aggressive offensive player. In the past, his propensity for knocking down open three’s and forcing defenses to pay attention to him opened the court for his superstar teammates.

During his stint with the Toronto Raptors, he proved to be one of the most versatile defensive bigs in the league, capable of locking down guards on the perimeter like this:

While at the same time able to serve as a de facto rim protector and meet opposing players at the rim, like in the clip below:

Unfortunately, for whatever reason, Patterson just didn’t make that same impact last year. With the OKC Thunder, he posted his worse box-plus-minus and value above replacement rating since his second year in the Association, checking in at measly -1.3 and .2 ratings respectively. And though he remained strong offensively, he just didn’t bring it the same way defensively.

The OKC Thunder need him to be significantly better than he was last year. After the Carmelo Anthony-Dennis Schröder trade, Patterson is likely going to be asked to step into the role of starting power forward and he’s going to have to perform as such.

This is the year for the OKC Thunder to finally make some noise in the playoffs. However, if Patterson shows up and plays the same way he did last year, they’re going to have huge issues.