He got so much time with the Spurs in the regular season.

A full year in the system and maybe Pop may trust him to handle the playoff pressure.

Such a good situation for him.

If he's opting out to go play for some bottom feeder club so he can score more points he's an idiot.

Yep, dumb move. Much better learning from a supportive master coach than being screwed by an incompetent or desperate one.

He'd have a lot of teams after him its not stupid, i reckon he will end up back at the blazers

Lol you people are hilarious

He has a week to explore his options before the June 25th deadline, so why shouldnt he? He's the third string pg on the Spurs team, one of the reason's he got so much playing time in his short stint with the Spurs so far was because of how compressed the season was this year with the lockout. You think Pop's going to need to rest Parker etc as much next season when he isnt running into 7 games in 10 days? or back to back to backs?.

In my opinion Patty wants playing time, so whose to say some team hasnt come to him and offered him alot more of it? This year's draft isnt really a PG heavy draft and next year's won't be much better, so why wouldnt some teams be interested.

It doesn't matter, he will become a much better player if he stays with the Spurs, and can learn from great players/

Pop's regular season rotations will always go 10 deep or more, resting his veterans wasn't just a product of the lockout season, he always does it.

I dont think he would test the waters without already having some interest.. he will get a NBA gig with more minutes and yeah Spurs have a lot of experience to learn off but you are kidding yourself if you think any other NBA team wouldnt be developing him into a better player.

You have to question some of the decisions that have been made so far in his career that haven't been great,

1) Declaring in a draft stacked with PGs at a time when he had an injury cloud of his head and following years draft was mostly PF and C without many PGs.It was obvious to most that he was screwing his chances of 1st round declaring when he did.

2) Leaving an NBL club during the protracted NBA lockout where he had an NBA out clause and signing to a (not particularly competitive) CBA league team where NBA out clauses are not recognised..when the NBA season starts putting his career in limbo....

I note that no one has asked what, to me, would be an obvious observation. Brett Brown is Assistant Coach at the Spurs. I would imagine (possibly incorrectly) that Patty would have discussed his options with Brett. If that is in fact the case then maybe Patty's decision is based on any such discussion with Brown. Possibly Patty has also had discussions with Popovich about his future with the Spurs and his decision is related to that discussion. Everyone appears to want to bag Patty's decision (tall poppies again) and yet no one (including myself) have any knowledge of any discussions which may or may not have occurred with the Spurs. A lot of people are only too quick to jump to conclusions which may not be correct. Have a nice day.

anon12 - definitely NOT tall poppy syndrome. I want him to succeed, and under Pop I reckon he will. He'll get more respect as a player and better coaching as well as great training opportunities on a team which is sucessful enough that it isn't desperate for wins. Staying should increase his quality and his marketability.

He's jumping too early IMO. Unless he's going to somewhere where he's guaranteed playing time, good coaching and security, he's going to look like he's just chasing minutes and dollars.

It's up to him whether he wants to go for the 'steady as she goes' Spurs or the roller-coaster in much of the rest of the NBA. I reckon he should stay with the Spurs for another year and then look around.

Just a thought: quit the guess-work. It is apparent that no one here actually knows what discussions have gone on behind the scenes. These types of moves happen often, particularly if a coach has said something along the lines of, "look, you're not in our plans next season. If you've got interest from another team paying you a similar amount, I recommend you jump ship and take that move, because we will probably push you to the D-League."

All will no doubt be revealed in time.

Thanks fully someone talking sense and reason...thanks Mookie!

Agree, its every easy (and tempting) to speculate on what the motives are for such a decision, i was simply suggesting that hopefully this is a decision that Helps his career rather than hinders it, unlike some of his/managements other choices. Def. not tall poppy, I would imagine most (inc. myself) would want Patty to have a long and successful NBA career

Has anyone read the article? it states he has until the 25 June to explore his option, so he is seeing what is out there. It doesn't mean he his opting out just testing the waters. Could still be with the spurs if there is nothing better.

Has Patty actually said he's opting out? Has this been printed anywhere? I know he said he was exploring all of his options, but I hadn't seen him state anywhere that he was definitely opting out.

Patty had a respectable stat line this year, playing under one of the best coaches in the nba, There will be many teams after him, i can see him playing for a worse team and getting good minutes next season

isaac can we rename the thread to patty to test the waters or some such, rather than the too-early opting out claim??

hoopie. Tall poppy syndrome or not you seem to have missed the point. The point is that no one knows what discussions he has had with the Spurs. Whether you think it is a mistake to leave or not probably will not have much impact on Patty's decision. As Mookie has stated and what I tried to get across is that everyone is 'guessing' what has happened. I think it will be interesting to see what happens after the deadline.

Seems like a good move to me. Likely looking for a back up gig, rather than a bench warmer.

I dont think it's a bad option. He will be 24 by the time the season starts and hasnt played a full season of professional basketball! He needs to play.

If the Spurs have told him he is likely to be a third or fourth option then I think it is the right thing to do.

There was about 5 teams interested in him but he choose San Antonio for obvious reasons...

benno: 5 teams interested? Why did he wait so long to sign ? Common be serious....

He didn't take that long to sign, First he had to wait for his FIBA letter of clearance from Xinjiang Flying Tigers then there was visa issues, he had to fly to mexico and back then all this other legal bulls*** he had sit through where have you been? He took the San Antonio gig as soon as it arose because of the strength of the team, the highly respected head coach and of course having the Boomers head coach along side him and obviously a good opportunity to learn from one of the best in the business TP...

This year Patty averaged 10.31 points per game with a .485% field goal percentage and shooting .429% from three. If he where to go free agent he'd be picked up very quickly you'd reckon...

I wouldn't be surprised if he did an opt out and resign with the Spurs for $1.5-1.75m.

Based on his performances this year, his value has definitely gone up. The question is by how much?