In breaking news, Australian prospect Patrick Mills has made it clear that he intends to hire an agent and keep his name in the NBA draft. This comes after speculation that Mills may have intended to “test the waters” before heading back to St Mary’s College for at least another year. Now, it appears this is not the case. Patty Mills will be an NBA player in 2009-2010.
According to that ESPN report Mills has campaigned for the Warriors to take him in the draft and is keen to stay in the Bay Area. This is a bit puzzling because Golden State only have one pick – #7 in the first round. As much as we love Patty, I doubt the Warriors would take him at #7 with quality guards like Brandon Jennings and Stephen Curry most likely to be available. So unless there is some serious draft-day trade activity, or the Warriors know something we don’t (like Mills is due for a four-inch growth spurt in August), then I can’t see that happening.
Depending on which mock draft you look at, Patty’s stock has been anywhere around high-teens (was a popular choice for Atlanta at #19 for a while) to early second round. Draftexpress.com currently have him at pick #29 which goes to the Lakers (I’m sure that would see jersey sales soar in Australia) while nbadraft.net has him at #20 going to Utah. Clearly, there is no consensus where Patty will end up, and that is unsurprising for two reasons: 1) Not everyone is sold on his game (his biggest selling point thus far has been “speed” which is not enough for anyone to guarantee a first round pick), and 2) After the first few picks, this draft is extremely even (some would say weak) and predicting what will happen from pick #10 onwards is extremely difficult.
We’ll of course keep an eye on Patty and his workouts over the coming weeks and keep you posted.
Tags: 2009 Draft, NBA Draft, Patrick Mills
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Andrew Bogut (MIL)
Patrick Mills (POR)
5 Comments until now.
Suns should get him at #14, He’d be a solid backup for nash, (since Dragic sucks) and with Mills and Barbosa… they’ll have to re-name it 3-seconds-or-less.
Also, i want a Patty Mills jersey.
hmm, i have to say i’m a bit surprised. i liked the idea of Patty going back to college. but can’t complain about having another Aussie in the NBA. this is great for the sport here.
and lol @ 3-seconds-or-less
this is awesome news. i think Patty is doing the right thing. thanks to the Olympics, i don’t think his draft stock will get any better than it is now.
Patty in a Lakers jersey would be sweeeet!!
Seems like a bit of a dangerous time for Patty at the moment – his stock seems to be down after the combine (though his speed has had a few mentions), and the draftexpress guy seemed to think that he didn’t have a good workout at GSW. It’s true that his stock is probably still riding on the hype of his Olympics campaign but he ultimately needs to be in a position to go to a worse team where there are minutes rather than backing up the backup Farmar or Daniel Gibson, or worse, going second round and getting cut or chucked in the D-League for a while, when he could go back to SMC, get his shooting % and apg #s up and going solid first round. Treviso could make or break his draft hopes.
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