When Patrick Patterson signed his last contract, he signed it for three years. Part of the plan, he told me at the time, was to be in position to sign another contract – ideally his ‘big’ one – when was a 28-year-old veteran with seven years in the league.
That would be this summer and it didn’t happen.
Coming off the Toronto Raptors‘ surprising playoff push in the 2013-14 season, Patterson had reason to believe his value was on the rise. He was always smart enough to position himself as the responsible role player rather than drive himself sideways because he wasn’t a starter like a lot of players have.
It wasn’t a lack of ambition. Patterson was a professional, and wise enough to recognize where his talents and skills fit in the NBA hierarchy. Good role players are in demand and get paid well, and Patterson figured that out early.
The cliché is Patterson was and is a ‘glue’ guy – but sometimes clichés ring true. He got along with Kyle Lowry and could call out the mercurial Raptors star at times. He was a good veteran for the team’s younger players. He loved the city of Toronto and that affection was largely reciprocated.
But all of that didn’t translate into the kind of payday Patterson might have expected when he hit free agency on July 1.
At the time we spoke about his future – back in 2014 – the NBA’ s massive, $24-billion TV contract had just been signed. He hadn’t factored in what being a free agent might mean with a salary cap well over $100 million, which were the early projections. But given the $6 million per year deal he signed in the summer of 2014 represented about 10 per cent of the $64-million cap that year, he had good cause to be excited about the potential of a big contract.
On Tuesday night when ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Patterson had signed with the Oklahoma City Thunder for three years and $16.4 million (total), reactions fell into three primary buckets.
In no particular order:
1. Patterson will be a great fit with the new-look Thunder, where he’ll likely get a chance to start alongside Russell Westbrook and newly-acquired Paul George. With a front line of George, Patterson and Steven Adams the Thunder have some length and defensive acumen to match up against the Golden State Warriors, even if the gap between the two clubs still seems pretty wide. In Toronto, Patterson’s misses (particularly in the post-season) gathered more attention than his makes, but he shot a respectable 37 per cent from three last year and is the kind of willing ball-mover that works well with (ahem) ball-dominant stars.
2. The Raptors will miss him, or what he did well, even if the freshest memory most have of Patterson is him struggling badly after the all-star break when he lost minutes to P.J. Tucker and especially during the playoffs when he shot just 28 per cent from the floor. Which isn’t to say they can’t replace him and that a different look might be an improvement as things seemed to grow a bit stale on all sides with Patterson heading into free agency. But Patterson-type smarts and unselfishness are difficult qualities to find and the Raptors have less of both now.
3. Wow, did Patterson ever take a pay cut. Patterson has a player option in the third year which means he might still be able to position himself for another solid contract. But it is rare for a player in his prime, coming from a winning program to take a step back financially, particularly on a short deal. Not only is the $5.5 million annually a pay cut compared to his previous deal, it represents just six per cent of the NBA’s $99-million cap, a significant dive compared with where he was with Toronto. Part of that is the way the lower-than-expected salary cap has put a squeeze on teams, but part of it is how Patterson limped to the finish line last season.
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What happened with Patterson in Toronto is a bit of a mystery, never quite explained, although it’s likely concerns over his left knee had something do with the Raptors not putting a high value on bringing him back. Patterson’s star was at its highest when he left a game against the Phoenix Suns on Dec. 29th after complaining of a ‘jolt’ in his knee.
The Raptors offence was flying at the time, vying with Golden State as the best in the league, and Patterson was part of two of the league’s top three-man combinations and the top two five-man units – not bad for a guy who averaged 9.1 points a game in his first year in Toronto and saw that number slide each season after. Not that Patterson’s game is about numbers, he just seems to help other guys get theirs. At that point there were concerns the Raptors wouldn’t be able to afford to bring him back. But he missed 16 games in the season’s second half and never played with quite the same force as before his injury.
Perhaps the best explanation – and his injury probably was a factor in this too — may be that Raptors head coach Dwane Casey lost confidence in him and Patterson felt it, and played like he lost confidence in himself. Internally there was frustration as Patterson seemed to shoot a lower percentage the more desperate the Raptors were for someone to make a shot.
Once a player senses his team doesn’t trust him to come through in big moments it can be a tough spiral to break. That’s not necessarily what happened with Patterson in Toronto, exactly, but there was frustration growing. A locker-room leader and team spokesman in good times and bad his entire time in Toronto, Patterson saw his role diminished as Tucker’s stock rose in his brief stint with the Raptors. Patterson skipped his season-ending exit interview, a red flag, in retrospect, that there was a rift between the club and one of its good soldiers.
The Raptors prioritized signing Tucker in free agency, but when that fell through it’s not clear they even reached out to Patterson.
Time will tell if all of that will be proven a miscalculation. Without Tucker and Patterson they have a need in their lineup for players who play intelligent, team-oriented defence, move the ball crisply and are at least statistically reasonable threats from deep, even if the eye test doesn’t always agree.
The Raptors are high on some of their internal solutions – Pascal Siakam in particular and rookie OG Anunoby – but it’s hard to imagine they can provide the kind of overall IQ Patterson did for Toronto in time for this season, at least.
For now the Raptors are tasked with finding something to augment and improve a lineup that isn’t as good now as when Tucker and Patterson were in it. It’s doubtful they’ll be able to find what Patterson provided at the price OKC paid.
If the former Raptor can give his best to the Thunder, he might get that big payday yet.
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