LAS VEGAS — It was about two hours before tip-off and Knicks’ two-way guard Kevin McCullar Jr. was on the court in Toronto looking at an iPhone.
He wasn’t scrolling social media, though. He wasn’t texting. No FaceTime. McCullar was working.
In between shooting reps, the 24-year-old was watching himself back on video.
“Getting visual feedback actually shows what you’re talking about,” McCullar told The Athletic. “Sometimes you can hear it and not really understand it all the way.
“I’m like a visual learner in a way, too. So that helps.”
The man behind the camera, working with McCullar, as well as others on New York’s roster, is Peter Patton. The shooting coach was hired this offseason by new Knicks head coach Mike Brown. Patton, who played college basketball at DePaul, where he shot nearly 40 percent from 3 in his four-year career, was previously with the Bulls, Timberwolves and Mavericks.
Coaches specializing in shooting aren’t as common in the NBA as you’d think. Not every team has a dedicated shooting coach. Which, considering how much value is put on the skill and how often it makes or breaks a player’s development, is odd.
How Patton got here is interesting. In their first conversation together as co-workers, veteran Josh Hart asked Brown about his plan with his staff and if he could hire a shooting coach to work with him and the rest of the team every day. Brown obliged and hired Patton.
Hart has benefited tremendously from having the coaching specialist around. The do-it-all veteran, whose 3-point shooting has been the lone weakness in his game throughout his long career, is hitting 3s at a 39.8 percent clip. Hart’s shooting has made his reintroduction into the starting lineup even more of a no-brainer because teams have to give up something, and they’re choosing to let him shoot. He’s making them pay. New York’s offense has gone from really good to deadly thanks to Hart’s ability to consistently knock down open 3s.
And each time he’s asked about his shooting improvements, Hart never fails to bring up Patton and the work that they do together.
“I’m working with Pete every day on my shot,” said Hart, who added that his injured hand is feeling better. “Like I said before, it was something vital, for me, to have a shooting coach here on staff that I could work with every single day. Obviously, I had one before but he lived in Los Angeles. I was playing 38 minutes a game. It was tough to focus on the mechanics. With Pete, I’m able to work on the mechanics every day, even if it’s just a little bit. It’s a feeling, repetition.”
Beyond Patton’s presence on a vet like Josh Hart, shooting is probably the singular skill that will determine what kind of careers the Knicks’ youngsters end up having. The team hasn’t had high draft picks in the last few years. New York, given its financial situation, needs one or two of the young players on its roster to become a legitimate rotation player.
Before every game, if you get there early enough, you can see Patton standing nearby as young players like McCullar, Tyler Kolek, Pacôme Dadiet and Mohammad Diawara go through their pregame routines. He’s there observing. He’s there giving advice. He’s making sure that consistency with the shot, above all else, is present. Players will hear Patton’s voice in the background after a few misses. They’ll also hear encouragement after a few makes.
Dadiet has the profile of a 3-and-D wing but his shooting hasn’t translated to the NBA yet. Diawara is athletic and raw but the shot is a work in progress. McCullar can do a little bit of everything but the 3-point shot, both in college and in the NBA/G League, has been below average. Kolek, who is getting rotation minutes under Brown, has great passing chops and can set up an offense. However, he, too, has struggled with his distance shooting.
Developing that part of Kolek’s game will be critical to how his career goes, now and in the future.
“He brings an intensity about him, a focus,” Kolek said of working with Patton. “Every shot matters, and it should matter. That’s what he preaches and emphasizes. Like I’ve said before, you can go out there and get mindless reps up, but if you’re intentional, even for a shorter period of time, you can get more out of it. That’s what he’s brought to the forefront of my mind — being intentional about everything.”
Whether these young players break through as shooters is still unknown. Patton and the Knicks, though, are doing everything in their power to make sure every stone is turned in the process, every detail is covered and studied.
Regardless, Patton’s impact on Hart as a shooter is worth the job alone. Hart said he’s never been as confident as he is right now shooting the ball. The Knicks are better when he’s on the floor because of what he’s doing from beyond the arc.
Hart’s shooting is so good right now that he’s trolling NBA coaches every time they decide to leave him open and he knocks down a 3. He had words for Raptors head coach Darko Rajaković earlier this week.
“Darko yelled at me today to not say anything to him,” Hart said after the game, with a smile.
In the distance, Patton was probably smiling, too.