John Hollinger revisited his Draft Rater, and put together his personal, “totally subjective” draft board for Thursday’s draft.

There are several big names missing — Ed Davis, Ekpe Udoh — but the one I’m interested in is Patrick Patterson.

Reader “jfountain1523” said the following about Patterson’s absence from Hollinger’s list: “I assume its the poor rebounding and being a bit short for his position that ruled him out in Hollinger’s rater.”

Let’s take the last part first. Is he “a bit short for his position”? He’s 6-9.25 in shoes and has a 7-1.25 wingspan. Looking at last year’s measurements, he’s three-quarters of an inch shorter than Blake Griffin, but his wingspan and standing reach are two inches wider/higher. Was anyone worried about Griffin’s size this time last year?

Now, regarding the rebounding. This is a funny criticism to make and it’s based on his rpg this season (7.4). Yeah, that’s not great for a power forward in college, but digging a little deeper and things don’t look so bad. In his sophomore year, he averaged 9.3 rebounds per game, which is just 0.5 rebounds less than rebound monster DeMarcus Cousins averaged this season. And speaking of Cousins, wouldn’t playing alongside a great rebounder like that only serve to reduce the number of boards available for Patterson? Of course his rebounding numbers were going to dip this season.

In the end, I think Patterson will make some late lottery team in need of a power forward very happy. I don’t think he’ll be a star, but he could certainly average 15-8 in a starter’s role.

According to his mother, Tywanna Patterson, he hasn’t made up his mind. Thanks to Vaught’s Views for the quotes.

“I found out UK released a statement saying Patrick and the four freshmen are leaving for the NBA and will declare for the draft,” said Tywanna Patterson Wednesday night. “I said, ‘Really, nobody told me.”

“I have a problem with it going out and not being official. It is his decision. He has not declared for the draft and once he does he can’t back out because he declared for the draft last year.”

“Me personally, I think it is Cal’s way to get recruits to commit and wants to make sure they know John (Wall), DeMarcus (Cousins), Daniel (Orton) and Eric (Bledsoe) are gone along with Patrick,” Tywanna Patterson said. “Pat didn’t know they were sending that statement out tonight.”

This doesn’t make much sense to me. If Patterson was still thinking about staying at Kentucky for another season, wouldn’t it serve Calipari’s best interests if he played another year? The only way I see this helping him is if he was pretty sure that Patterson was leaving and he wanted to get that news out there so he could land an extra recruit.

Either way, it’s a pretty slimy thing to do.

Photo from fOTOGLIF