Originally Posted by BrotherSteve's Blog

On February 19, 2009 trade deadline day, the Toronto Raptors sent bench warmer Will Solomon off to Boston for little used third year center Patrick O’Bryant. Solomon hadn’t seen the floor for the past 6 Raptor games and O’Bryant had played for only 108 minutes all season with Boston. Not exactly the players media types dream about being traded on trade deadline day!

Not just media types, fans were left underwhelmed by the Colangelo deal too. Enduring a disastrous season to-date, fans were hoping for so much more! But there wasn’t anyone else coming to save the Raptors’ season and O’Bryant was left to shoulder the disappointment.

But it should have been apparent that Colangelo wasn’t making this deal to save the un-saveable 2008-09 season. Bryan Colangelo, like 2 GMs before him saw something in Patrick O’Bryant that enticed them into giving this kid (yet another) chance.

Patrick Fitzgerald O’Bryant, the 9th overall first round draft pick by the Golden State Warriors played his college ball at Bradley and his high school ball in Minnesota. At least Patrick shouldn’t be afraid of the snow!

O’Bryant is big. True 7 footer and over 250 lbs, Patrick O’Bryant has freakishly long arms giving him a 9’ 4” standing reach and a 7’ 5” wingspan. This guy can put his hand in the mesh while standing on the floor.

But watching O’Bryant in college could leave one with an underwhelmed feeling. Something was definitely missing from his game. While Patrick could dominate his smaller college opponents, somehow he should have been doing more.

In his 2 seasons at Bradley, Patrick O’Bryant averaged only 24 minutes a game. It was apparent that he just wasn’t in good enough condition to perform up to the standards of his physical gifts.

But O’Bryant still intrigued NBA GMs and the reasons were obvious. Patrick could block shots. He could block shots with both hands. And even though he had no offensive game outside of 5 feet, O’Bryant averaged 11.6 points, to go with his 7.8 rebounds, and 2.8 blocks in those 24 minutes.

While there should be no question that Patrick O’Bryant is one of those players who would have benefited from playing 4 years of college ball, the lure of guaranteed lottery pick money was just too much to pass up.

So O’Bryant came to the NBA as a very raw offensive player without a back to the basket move, no perimeter game what-so-ever, an inconsistent jump-hook and a reliance on overpowering smaller college players. Like many big men who leave college too soon, he had a tendency to disappear during games. And he was also in desperate need of a strength and conditioning program.

It became apparent very quickly that O’Bryant wasn’t going to fit in well under Don Nelson. In 2 seasons Nelson only played him for a total of 218 minutes and not surprisingly Golden State didn’t pick up his third year option. Looking good in the D-League just isn’t enough!

So Boston, looking for low priced talent to fill out an already very strong line-up, signed O’Bryant to a modest 2-year deal. Patrick O’Bryant still intrigued NBA analysts and GMs as best summarized last year by Hollinger at ESPN, “an outstanding risk-reward play … He doesn’t figure to get a lot of time right away … but considering the potential and the price this was an underrated offseason pickup.”

Unfortunately for O’Bryant, he only managed to play in 108 minutes by the trade deadline and Boston was more than happy to participate in a 3-way trade that eventually netted them a future second round pick.

In 13 games at the end of last season with the Raptors, Patrick O’Bryant played for 147 minutes. More minutes than he had played in a season for any team in his 3 NBA seasons. So what did Patrick show his coaches in those whopping 11.3 minutes per game? Blocks! A mid-range jump shot! He played in position! Hardly overwhelming but those 0.9 blocks per game in limited minutes were impressive on a team that is in desperate need of blocks.

So Patrick O’Bryant didn’t overwhelm anyone, but unlike the more exciting and energized Pops Mensah-Bonsu, O’Bryant didn’t make that many mistakes either. And maybe the $500,000 in guaranteed money for this season came into play too?

When one steps-back and looks at the awesome physical gifts that Patrick O’Bryant has been blessed with. Then consider the positive features of his game from that very brief “try-out” he had at the end of last season. And believe that O’Bryant has shown Triano and Colangelo something in the practice gym to makes them believe this long armed freak has finally begun to find his game. Maybe then we can see why Bryan Colangelo is giving this still very young center yet another chance.

Perhaps it’s best to look at this as a low risk, low cost, high reward Project Brought to Us by Bryan Colangelo, one of the best GMs in the game at finding talent that other GMs have overlooked or undervalued.

Patrick O’Bryant is still an outstanding risk-reward play, at least for one more season.

Originally Posted by •LX•

Go POB!

The comment about Bryan's brilliance relative to other GM's is BS though. Bigs just take some time, and we've got room for him here, at least for a year as the article says. If he turns out as surprising as Diaw (about the only example I can think of that applies) then it would be quite nice, but I'd settle for a little less as well.

Originally Posted by tvett6

I would of thought Kevin Garnett if anyone would light a fire under his ass. Seemingly it did little, so that's what i expect out of POB this year. LITTLE.

You gotta have heart and desire, to work to reach your goals. Seen nothing like that from Patrick yet. Gotta say he does have a very nice mid range game though. He needs to take strength and conditioning to hyper serious mode if he's ever gonna be more than an afterthought. Work and Patrick, i doubt they will ever get along!

Originally Posted by jeffb

POB is a waste of height.

Originally Posted by B-RAD

i remain to be shocked by your responses.

Originally Posted by •LX•

See, and yet he's been working all summer. A player like KG can shut people down as much as fill them up with some serious drive. Some people, and bigs in particular, need to figure out how they can make the hard work pay off best for them. If the guy can find a real role on this team, and still doesn't pan out, then the criticism of his heart would make more sense. I'm betting that he would actually start to click and go from there.