Europe loves Patty Mills

-Beyondthebeat.net


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link?

btw... Jason Kidd used to be "pretty damned fast." Relative to NBA PGs these days he's average speed/quickness at best.

STOMP

 

I hope we keep him. At this point, I'm not confident with Bayless or Koponen as the PG of the future after Miller and Blake run their course(s)

 

Rather have Bayless. Just watched our game last year against NOLA when we were down 20 and came back! He was amazing. He is very young and people have to remember this!

 

Mills had zero trouble getting by Chris Paul and Deron Williams. He's Aaron Brooks-quick with the ball. His problems are he is undersized and isn't near as good of a shooter as Brooks.

 

I've never seen him play, so I've no impression of his game. But just to define his size I looked up his pre-draft numbers. He's pretty much the same sized guy as CPaul & ABrooks which is on the low end of acceptable.

Anyhoo, I'm looking forward to seeing him play. The first thing I'll be looking for is how he how he uses the speed you're mentioning. Once he blows by his guy does he usually try to score and can he dish it as well?

STOMP

 

He had trouble finishing at times at St. Mary's. He did finish well against the USA Olympic team, however, but that was just a few games. I wouldn't say he's a great passer, either. He's a nice change of pace option, and the Blazers have no other PG that has Mills' speed. I was surprised to see him drop so far in the draft, especially considering how easy it is for very fast PGs to penetrate in the new era of no hand-checking. He's a heady player with a lot of international experience at such a young age. If at all possible, I'd like to see him play a year in Europe (when he gets healthy), and then come to camp in 2010 to compete for a roster spot.

 

Bingo. If he finished at St. Mary's like he did in the Olympics he would have been a top-20/late-lotto pick for sure.

 

I dunno about you, but I'd accept Chris Paul pretty quickly. So, essentially, if he's good enough, it doesn't matter.

 

Mills strikes me as a poor man's Pooh Jeter with a cute accent. Blazing fast, with a below average shot and questionable decision making (hasn't met a shot he wouldn't take). He really jacks up a LOT of bad shots. I don't want such an inefficient scorer dominating the ball when the Blazers have several much more efficient scoring options. On the rare occasion his shot is falling, he can shoot his team to victory, but is more likely to shoot them out of a game. He's also a poor defender.

BNM

 

I can't agree with this at all. Pooh Jeter barely made a blip on the radar at UP, let alone in international play as a 20 year-old. How is Mills a "poor man's" Pooh Jeter?

 

I saw him play a lot at St Mary's and think he can certainly be an NBA PG, maybe not all-star level but he can contribute to a team. His shot isn't great but is improving. If you have a chance check out the St Mary's-Davidson game in the NIT last year. Curry is no great defender but he's still NBA quality and Mills played really well. His shot was not falling (I think he went 1-10 from 3 or something like that) but he was still able to set people up danm near every possession.

 

Hopefully he's still as quick after he recovers from his injury.

 

Asked and answered.

If you look at Mills' game logs there were multiple games where Mills single handedly shot his team out of the game (5-20 including 0-9 3FG, 2-16 including 0-7 3FG, 7-24 including 4-13 3FG). At least Jeter has the common sense to not jack up a shot on every possession when he's not hitting. Jeter's final year stats at UP are very similar to Mills' stats from last season at St. Marys - only Jeter shot the ball better over all, better from the FT line and from better 3-point range. Mills is basically a worse shooting version of Jeter. Very similar games, with very similar limitations/weaknesses. Jeter, takes fewer shots, hits them at a higher percentage and turns the ball over slightly less than Mills.

For a guy who can't shoot for shit, Mills certainly puts up a LOT of shots. The guy is a serious ball hog. A PG that has a 2x FGA:AST ratio is a shoot first PG. Mills' FGA:AST ratio last season was 4:1. For anyone who thinks Jerryd isn't a "true" PG, Bayless' FGA:AST ratio as a rookie was 2.4:1.



BNM

 

But he's really fast!!111!!!!111

 

Most of the games you referenced were after he returned from a broken right wrist, and yet his team still went 4-2 in those games.

St. Mary's w/Mills pre-injury. 18-1. St. Mary's w/Mills, period. 22-3. St. Mary's when Mills got injured while leading against Gonzaga. 0-1.

St. Mary's w/out Mills. 6-3.

It's hard for me to see how he "shot his team out of games" considering the team was much better with him, even with him shooting on a bum wrist. I suppose I could post all of his good games, but I'm not going to argue further with someone calling Mills a "poor man's Pooh Jeter". That kills your credibility on the issue.

 

At this stage I don't think Mills is anywhere close to helping the Blazers. But that's not the end all and be all of the situation. I think there are certain players who learn and progress differently than others, and I hope and think that Mills may be that kind of player. When a player comes into the NBA you want him to be better than everyone else at something with the potential of improving the rest of his game so he gets a shot at exploiting his one big advantage. Mills has speed. And playing for a team where he is clearly one of the worst shooters will hopefully provide him with the structure where he will not try to score alone every time like he did in the past. Will this happen? I don''t know. But this is why I like giving resources and time to young players with special attributes like Oden or Batum over perhaps currently better all around players with no super skill like Blake, Webster or Outlaw. If we can build the rest of the game up in players with special qualities then we stand to get lucky from time to time and end up with stars.

This does not mean that I think that Mills will be a star, just that I like the fact that he has at least one supreme talent which gives him the outside chance of becoming a star. I would say the same for Batum, Oden and Bayless.

 

I certainly don't question that Mills shoots a lot and is not a "pure" PG. But that's an unfair comparison. Of course Bayless shot less as a rookie, because he knew that he BETTER give the ball up once in a while or he would be back glued to the pine. That's also why he was tentative, because playing that way did not come naturally. I'd be curious (and it would be a fairer comparison) to see Bayless's numbers in his last year of college. (Of course, even that wouldn't be entirely fair: Bayless was on what was widely seen as a stacked Arizona team. Who else played for St. Mary's?)

I'm also curious to see Mills's numbers as a rookie - coming this year, I hope, and with the Blazers, I hope.

 

Here's part of why Europe might love Mills:

 

I wouldn't sleep on Patty Mills. He is going to be good!