The new-look Oklahoma City Thunder have big aspirations.

Russell Westbrook has transformed himself from a one-man band into a more distribution-focused point guard, while Paul George is getting comfortable working off the ball, slinking off pin-downs and nailing spot-ups. Carmelo Anthony is carrying the second unit as a solo act and working as a super-outlet option with the starters when Russ collapses rival stoppers. So far the defense is even better than advertised, ranking second in the league overall at an unsustainably stingy 98.5 points per 100 possessions. Steven Adams is also enjoying his best statistical season to date, freed to dominate the paint by his new teammates’ surplus supply of outside shooting. But after opening the season with just five wins in a dozen games, this team’s ability to reach its full potential is now up for debate.

Although the additions of Melo and George have returned a sense of hope to the Thunder franchise, the play of fellow newcomer Patrick Patterson could ultimately determine the team’s ceiling.

Patterson signed with OKC over the offseason for a reasonable three years and $16.4 million dollars. In part, he was a victim of the newly emerged cap-starved market, whereas the prior season saw players like Luol Deng make $72 million in guaranteed money. A drop-off in expected league revenue meant that free agents this summer faced a much bleaker picture.

Also priced in was the fact that Patterson required offseason knee surgery. He underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee over the summer, causing him to miss training camp and all of preseason. Although he has returned to play already, he is far from fully recovered. And a healthy Patterson can’t come soon enough for a Thunder squad that finds itself swooning early.

Team context is important in understanding the power forward’s potential impact. Notably, the Thunder’s bench is perilously thin. For though the trades general manager Sam Presti executed this year were home runs, they both involved sending out two players in exchange for one. Oklahoma City is short on two-way contributors beyond veteran backup point guard Raymond Felton and the newly emerging threat of Jerami Grant; they have a collection of support players who are liabilities on offense or defense.

Andre Roberson, the starting 2-guard, is a renowned defensive specialist. But he’s arguably even better known for his deficiencies on the offensive end. While he has has a knack for making opposing players wilt under his stopping pressure, the tradeoffs the Thunder make by having him on the court are considerable:

He has never shot higher than 31 percent from three for a season and, at 25 percent in 2017-18, doesn’t currently look likely to break that mark. He also just doesn’t take many triples, so opponents don’t respect him on the perimeter.

Roberson likes to lurk in the dunker spot on the baseline and do his best to sneak in for backdoor cuts. This is useful for a few possessions per game but doesn’t do anything to alleviate the serious spacing issues his presence causes every minute he’s on the floor.

Conversely, Alex Abrines is slumping to start this year, but he became a legitimate offensive threat on a team largely starved for perimeter scoring by notching 38.1 percent from three over the course of 2016-17. But he was destroyed on switches last year, becoming a frequent target for opposing offenses through mismatches in the post. Per Synergy, he was in the 15^th percentile defending in isolation, allowing 1.065 points per possession. Against post-ups, he ranked 375^th out of all 380 qualified players, allowing a horrific 1.421 points per possession.

Though the sample remains small this year, he doesn’t look to have improved. This level of defensive ineptitude is the inverse of Roberson’s debilitating shooting woes; both are only one half of a complete player.

Patterson, however, will be exactly what the Thunder need—a role player who contributes meaningfully on both sides of the floor, doesn’t require the ball to be effective and allows the team to play small.

Prior to signing with the Thunder, Patterson served in a do-everything role for the most successful period in Toronto Raptors franchise history. He was something of a plus/minus darling; rarely did his box-score stats jump off the page, but every lineup he played in benefited from his switching and shooting.

He was second overall on the Raptors in plus/minus during the 2016-17 season at plus-340. Kyle Lowry was plus-356. The next nearest? Way down at plus-179, Lucas Nogueira.  This isn’t a statistical aberration. The year prior, he led all Raptors at plus-403, and that followed another go-round in which he finished second.

Patterson has only averaged 7.6 points and 4.6 rebounds per game for his career, but it’s easy to see how he impacts games to create so many wild plus/minus lines.

The big man often sprints the floor on offense and either tries to beat his man to the corner or, failing that, to set a drag screen. So if he’s not drawing the defending big out of the paint with the threat of his shooting, he’s creating space for a guard to penetrate by screening their man in transition. In either case, Patterson can positively influence the play without even touching the ball:

Patterson had the lowest usage rate (12.5 percent) among Raptors rotation players in 2016-17. Similarly, 100 percent of his points this season have been assisted.

Spot-ups serve as the mainstay of his offensive diet, where he sports a 39.1 percent frequency. On those plays, Patterson is scoring 1.278 points per possession, even after a slow start to the year in which he shot 2-of-14 from three-point range.

He’s a play finisher rather than a playmaker, with nearly all his offensive output coming from spot-ups, in transition or as the roll man, per Synergy. This is crucial for overall fit, as Patterson’s defense and effort do not waver when surrounded by ball-dominant players, which will always be the case while he shares the court with the Thunder’s Big Three.

And that defense, particularly on a team level, is pretty darn sound.

Notice how conscious of the 2.9 rule Patterson is in this clip. Even as he is surveying the offense and moving around the paint, he takes pains to keep tapping one foot outside the key in order to avoid the dreaded three-second violation. These are the kind of moments that aren’t visible in the box score, but are borne out in his net impact.

Thus far, lineups containing Patterson, Westbrook, Melo, and George have only played a total of 13.7 minutes together. They’re an uninspiring minus-4 in that time, but that should change in due time. In addition to Patterson’s early shooting woes as he has been working himself back from injury, he has posted promising numbers when sharing the court with one of Anthony or Westbrook.

The 28-year-old has done particularly well playing alongside the second unit with Anthony, and the pair has been a plus-5 in 86.6 minutes played, with the majority of that run coming without George or Westbrook. These Melo-plus-bench groups somewhat mirror his role as the 5 with the Raptors, where he excelled for second units with Kyle Lowry as the primary initiator.

Westbrook and Patterson, meanwhile, are also a plus-5 in 76.4 minutes played, so the major drag on the collective performance has been the power forward’s surprising play with George. To date, those two are an atrocious minus-23 in 102.7 minutes, shocking given what should be a natural synergy between two capable shooters, willing defenders and able switchers.

Though the results so far have been poor, we have gotten glimpses of what a defensive duo of George and Patterson might mean. It can be stymieing:

Against most matchups, Patterson is capable of switching 3 through 5, while George can switch 2 through 4. This will allow them to force opponents into more iso-heavy action—always a good result for a defense. If the larger chemistry and role issues facing the team can be resolved, it’s fair to expect that their on-court combination should dramatically improve.

Lastly, a big part of Patterson’s value is the lineup versatility he adds to the Thunder. Teams like the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets (and now the Rudy Gay-at-the-5 San Antonio Spurs!) are imposing in the playoffs not only because of their cohesion and talent, but because they can rapidly shift their play style on the fly. The Warriors can play Draymond Green, Kevin Durant or Zaza Pachulia at the 5, and all will require different kinds of coverage. Patterson is no Draymond, but his ability to switch onto smaller players, as well as opposing 5s, provides a facsimile of his value.

Last year’s playoffs served as yet more proof that a one-man wrecking crew can’t compete with a well-defined and honed offensive system. OKC can now play a genuine five-out lineup that will let it compete with the shooting and switch-heavy Warriors Death Lineup and Morey-Ball Rockets—something it’s never been able to do before.

In Toronto during the 2016-17 season, the Raptors went to Patterson at the 5 approximately 9 percent of the time.  In his short tenure with OKC, that has proved valuable experience for a veteran who’s now playing 86 percent of his minutes at center. This is likely foreshadowing his role during the playoffs, either in minutes when Steven Adams needs rest or when they want to give the opposition a different look.

Previous data indicates this will be an effective weapon for the Thunder. The two most common lineups with Patterson playing the stretch 5 in Toronto were quite successful, posting decisively positive numbers.

Nobody would argue Patterson is a cure-all for an Oklahoma City team off to a rocky start. Real questions remain about how three of the NBA’s most ball-dominant players can come together to create an egalitarian offense rivaling that of the Rockets or Warriors.

He’s not the straw that stirs the drink. But Patterson could be the glass that holds this experiment together.

Follow Rory on Twitter @bballgodsblog

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Unless otherwise indicated, all stats are from NBA Math, Basketball Reference or NBA.com and are accurate heading into games on November 14.