Justin Nicholas Pattong was born June 14, 1997. Patton attended Omaha North High School in Omaha, Nebraska. He was rated by Scout.com as a five-star recruit and was recruited by Creighton University basketball.
Patton redshirted his first year at Creighton in 2015. In his first college game in 2016, he scored 12 points and had 8 rebounds. He scored a season-high 25 points against St. John's on January 4, 2017. He had 13-straight games in double-figures before breaking the streak in a loss to against Xavier on February 4, 2017. During his freshman season he was named Big East Freshman of the Year, and Second Team All-Big East. On April 5, 2017, Patton relinquished his college eligibility by declaring for the NBA Draft and signing with an agent.
Patton was selected by the Chicago Bulls with the 16th pick in the 2017 NBA Draft. On draft night his rights were traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves along with Jimmy Butler in exchange for Zach LaVine, Kris Dunn, and the draft rights to Lauri Markkanen. On July 4, 2017, Patton signed with the Timberwolves. Patton was to participate in the 2017 NBA Summer League, however, he suffered an injury during a workout and underwent immediate surgery to repair his broken left foot, and was sidelined indefinitely