There are many reasons why Patrick Patterson should be the Thunder’s new starting power forward. But before we get to that, we must first talk about why his performance was sub par during his first year in Oklahoma City.
Power forward logjam
Patrick Patterson’s 2017-18 season was undeniably underwhelming. The Thunder’s logjam at the four was the main reason for that.
As I previously mentioned, he played a career-low 15.5 MPG last season. That was due to Carmelo Anthony and Jerami Grant taking up the absolute majority of minutes at power forward. Melo averaged 32.1 MPG while Grant averaged 20.1 MPG.
That didn’t only eat into his minutes. It also affected where he was playing.
Per Basketball Reference, 78% of Patrick Patterson’s minutes last season were at the 5. His next highest season: 12%
— Thunder Heads (@OKCThunderHeads) August 2, 2018
That figure was also thanks to the OKC Thunder not having a true backup center last season, thereby forcing Billy Donovan to use Patterson at center. That obviously didn’t work out. Even though Patterson can be used as a small ball five at times, he cannot be given significant minutes as a center. He often found himself over matched by opposing backup centers due to his size and, as a result, he did not do as well.
Thankfully, that problem has been solved. Thanks to Melo’s departure as well as Nerlens Noel’s arrival during the offseason, Patterson will no longer have to fill in as a backup 5.
With that being said, we can now dive into the reasons why Patrick Patterson should be the Thunder’s starting power forward in the 2018-19 season.’