Over the weekend I got to see Temple in the NBA D- league. He is playing for the Rio Grande Vipers and is the first guy off the bench. He is a better defender than the starting gaurds, and he had a solid game against Reno. On offense the whole team seems to be geared towards getting the ball to Pat Patterson (from Kentucky) who is on loan from the Houston Rockets. As such he didn't have many shooting opportunities but is still averaging around 10 ppg. Hopefully, he can get picked up by some team in the NBA later on in the year.

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Posted by Sam Waterston

Baton Rouge

Member since Sep 2008

1992 posts

Posted on 12/13/10 at 4:10 pm to nvcowboyfan

Thanks for the update

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Posted by bthomp1

Baton Rouge, LA

Member since Apr 2009

664 posts

Posted on 12/13/10 at 4:29 pm to nvcowboyfan

Im surprised to hear a player like Patterson is even in the D-League....u know y?

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Posted by nvcowboyfan

James Turner Street, Birmingham,UK

Member since Nov 2007

2953 posts

Posted on 12/13/10 at 4:58 pm to bthomp1

The parent NBA team can send one player to the D-league to get more PT than they would get in the bigs, but they have to pay their full salary as opposed to the unaffiliated NBADL guys who make in the high 5 figures.
With Pat Patterson, he is without a doubt the best guy on their team. But he is 6'9" and may no be tall enough to play as a 5 in the NBA and may not be athletic enough to play a 4. Most of the D-league guys are like that, either a bit small for one position and not quick enough for another. I have season tickets for the Reno Bighorns and our best player is Patrick Ewing, Jr. He has bounced around a few NBA teams and is a super athletic 6'8" forward. His main weakness is that he makes at least 5 stupid bonehead gambles for steals on defense per game which just doesn't fly in the NBA.

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Posted by natedawgslu10