I Never Knew Pat Bev Was This Good On Offense

I watch basketball way too much. I used to stay up till 2 a.m. scouting opponents my high school team was playing against, and in college, I’d wake up at 6 a.m. to catch up on any NBA games I missed the night before. Heck, I watched enough basketball that they eventually gave me a job where they paid me to sit around and watch basketball games all day.

Always acting like the smartest person in the room is lame, but I’m confident I know more about basketball than most due to the countless hours I’ve spent learning, playing, and watching the game.

But I was wrong about Patrick Beverley.

More specifically, I was dead wrong about how good Pat Bev’s offense would be for the Philadelphia 76ers.

Beverley is one of the few role players that even the most casual NBA fan could tell you a lot about. His personality and antics give him the public recognition of an 8-time All Star, not an undrafted role player who’s averaging 17.8 minutes per game in his age 35 season. Whenever you ask someone about Pat Bev, they think of him standing on the table in Minnesota after their Play-In win. Or his legendarily intense and chaotic approach to defense. Or even the time when he showed a referee a camera to so they could see the foul call they missed, creating one of the funniest screen grabs in league history.

Pat Bev brought a camera out at the end of regulation to show the ref the potential missed call on LeBron's final shot 😅💀 pic.twitter.com/TQAVUkMNXx

— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) January 29, 2023

But no one ever thinks of Pat Bev as an offensive wizard. His reputation entering the 2023-24 season was that of guard P.J. Tucker, essentially. Great one-on-one defender who competes with enough rabid intensity to guard up against bigger opponents in spite of his small stature, but a practical non-entity on offense whose only value is hitting wide open threes that the defense willingly gives them.

Hello, World!

I watched enough Pat Bev in Minnesota, Los Angeles and Chicago to know that he was at least not as limited as Tucker on offense, but I was still not a fan when the Sixers signed him in free agency, and thought his lack of scoring juice would outweigh his bulldog defense.

It wasn’t until watching every single game he played night after night that I appreciated what he brings to a team when they have the ball. His numbers are nothing to write home about (5.5 PPG, 2.4 APG and 30.3% 3-pt shooting), but he plays with knowledge of what needs to happen. He’s never hesitating or unsure of what to do out there. He could sense that opponents were playing off of him and daring him to make them pay, and he’s responded with a newfound love for floaters and hook shots, surprising defenses with how willing he is to attack them off the bounce.

Just a full minute of Pat Bev floaters and turnaround hook shots to brighten your day. pic.twitter.com/fVKVmeYaqN

— Daniel Olinger (@dan_olinger) January 14, 2024

Ever since his 26-point explosion in Boston, Pat Bev has fallen in love with that up-and-under hook shot. If you ever see him driving to his left, he’s all but guaranteed to stop on a dime and pivot back to shoot a righty hook shot over the front of the rim. His floaters and flip shots aren’t something you can build the whole boat out of, but it’s an excellent counter that can save a possession or two for the Sixers each game. You don’t have to panic if Beverley is dribbling the ball late in the shot clock. Next thing you know, he’ll be in the paint scoring a bucket over a frustrated defender who can’t believe that shot went in.

More important than his scoring — we need to talk about Pat Bev being a ridiculously good passer.

If I were to rank passers on this Sixers team, it would go something like this:

1. Nic Batum (easy and clear leader)

2. Joel Embiid (scoring gravity contributes to being a better passer)

3. Tyrese Maxey (re: same with Embiid)

4. Pat Bev

And the gap between Pat Bev and No. 5 is bigger than the gap between Batum and Pat Bev.

Sure, the Sixers can’t run their entire offense through the guy wearing jersey No. 22, and he operates in a far different manner from the traditional backup point guard.

But give Pat Bev an opening on the pick and roll, and he’ll find a way to make the pocket pass.

Try to front someone like Embiid or Tobias Harris on a post-up, and Pat Bev will lob a perfect entry pass over the top for the assists.

He’s not an otherworldly passer, but he’s well above average. Even thought post entries and pockets passes are basic reads, they’re ones that plenty of lesser players around the NBA routinely miss.

Pat Bev doesn’t. And that’s because he’s an incredibly smart basketball player — something I didn’t give him enough credit for until he arrived in Philadelphia.

It takes a smart player to always be thinking one step ahead, which is what Pat Bev did on his game-winning assist to Marcus Morris last month. He grabbed the rebound and had already flipped the ball to his open teammate before his feet touched the ground again. It wasn’t even the first time he had done that all season. He knows where’s he going to pass the ball before he’s even gotten it.

It takes a smart player to find cutters in the paint on drives, and no one on this Sixers team does that better than Beverley. It’s hard to pass around the rim. NBA defenders are large and athletic, and in no area of the court do you feel that more than when you’re directly underneath the basket.

No matter. Pat Bev is fantastic on these lay-down and dump-off passes. He can collapse the defense and dish it off to a finisher in the dunker spot, or he can eye a teammate cutting down the middle of the key and find them in traffic for the layup.

As good as the 2023-24 Sixers have been, most of the talk surrounding them has focused on how they can improve. Potential trade talk rules all, and it’s no different for a team that people want to see finally break through the 2nd round playoff ceiling.

But Pat Bev has done all he can to show that his spot doesn’t need to be upgraded. Sure, it wouldn’t hurt to add a Tyus Jones or a Delon Wright to give the team even more talent and a more traditional leader of the 2nd unit that Pat Bev can play alongside. But that’s just a desire at this point, not a need. This team doesn’t need to add another backup point guard to replace him because Beverley has shown he’s good enough on both ends to contribute to winning basketball.

I never thought I would write that when the Sixers signed him on July 9, 2023. But turns out I still don’t know enough about basketball, because I didn’t know that Pat Bev would be this good for the offense.