I think 3-2 would be preferable to any defensive kind of tactic where you manage to get the man to man and your defender is so good he will contest most shots. In a 3-2 the load is distributed across the team, you run the risk of a high foul count but usually not against a Patient. If you manage to mtm the scorer with a good defender, then you have 2 problems: a) Patient would go to another, more advantageous match up; b) Your defender will have to defend a lot of shots. What happens if he fouls out because of that?
It's unfortunate, Patient is not exactly a great offense by any measure. The problem is: when you have to play trainees out of position, you will have starters playing out of position too. So you might as well take advantage of the bad situation if you can and Patient allow you to do it sometimes.