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OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER MEDIA CONFERENCE

April 28, 2018

Patrick Patterson

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Q. What did you make of your first season here?
PATRICK PATTERSON: What did I make of my first season here? Entertaining, fun, being alongside these guys, the relationships I developed. At the end of the day, if I could sum it up in one word, entertaining.

Q. You had the knee stuff in the off-season, then you got Melo. You were in and out of the rotation. What did you make of your role and the slight inconsistency there, and what does that mean for next year?
PATRICK PATTERSON: Of course it wasn't what I expected as far as productivity goes, my involvement with the team. It wasn't what I hoped and thought it would be. Of course I can blame can all on coming into the season after the surgery, then not partaking in training camp, and then having a slow start, getting my rhythm back and my legs back and my timing back, and that took quite some time in order to get all those things underneath me. Of course that affected playing time and my productivity out there.

At the end of the day, it wasn't what I expected, it wasn't what my teammates and coaching staff expected or even the fans, so what happens now is just playing in the proper schedule in the off-season as far as workout regimen goes, locations, times, staying in contact with the coaching staff about workouts with them and players in certain cities, and just coming into training camp most importantly healthy. That's my main thing for this year, just taking care of my body and make sure nothing negative or bad happens and being able to be me when we roll into training camp in October.

Q. Are you healthy now in terms of do you have any procedures or anything you have to get done?
PATRICK PATTERSON: Oh, no, I'm good. Knock on wood, no procedures need to be done. Knee is healthy, ankles are good, shoulder, wrist is good. Cleared by the docs. Hopefully that stays the same way throughout the course of the summer.

Q. Do you have higher expectations going into next year? Do you expect with all that stuff out of the way that you would come in and have a better year?
PATRICK PATTERSON: Definitely. With everything out of the way, coming in healthy, being able to have a training camp, practice, get my legs, my timing, everything, underneath me, having a great summer, work out, coming into the season next year, I definitely expect it to be 10 times better than my performance this year.

Q. Big picture perspective with the team as a whole, as you look at the direction the league is heading and what this team is right now, what are some major areas in training camp next year that you feel like you can take some strides in as a group that would really help the team moving forward?
PATRICK PATTERSON: I think one thing, of course, is our talk on the defensive side of the ball. As easy as it may seem, it sometimes becomes difficult in games. So just focusing on that in training camp. Of course the game is tending to go more towards small ball, three-point line, attacking the basket with the wings rather than a slow-paced game. Just communicating on the defensive side of the ball, working a lot better with our switches, guarding the ball, guarding our yard, as the coaching staff would say, and then offensively, just having an identity and sticking to that early, ball movement, sharing the ball, Russ still being Russ and the rest of the team still being themselves at the same time, but just making sure we create the right identity and just sticking to that throughout the course of the season.

Q. What is this off-season for you? What are you doing? What do you have planned?
PATRICK PATTERSON: This off-season for me, of course working on life after basketball, so internships with movie production agencies, and of course working out in LA, a little bit in Toronto, and of course here, as well, trying to be with Darko, Coach, Donovan and the rest of the team as much as possible. But just working on my game and working on life after basketball.

Q. What do the movie internships entail?
PATRICK PATTERSON: Hopefully working for Marvel, meeting the president and CEO of that whole spiel, meeting other producers, picking their brains, picking their minds about where they got and how they got to where they are and just working on my craft at the same time.

Q. Do you have a lead on that or an interest with Marvel?
PATRICK PATTERSON: Yeah.

Q. Is that definitely happening?
PATRICK PATTERSON: Possibly. I don't want to jinx it. But it's being in the works right now, so hopefully it works. That would be great for myself, so yeah. I don't want to jinx it, so everyone knock on wood for me.

Q. Have you had an opportunity to talk to Ryan Coogler or anything like that?
PATRICK PATTERSON: I have not, but this summer would be a great opportunity to, so since I'll be out there, who knows with that.

Q. Can you say without spoilers what you thought about "Infinity War"?
PATRICK PATTERSON: Top three Marvel movies ever made.

Q. What are your three?
PATRICK PATTERSON: What are my three? The first one would be the original "Avengers". The second one would be "Black Panther," and then this one, "Avengers: Infinity War" after that. And maybe "Dead Pool" fourth.

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