What does Patty Mills bring to the table?

[sananspursfan21]

I'm familiar with the name but i'm unsure, what kind of signing would this be? could he contribute immediately? what are his strengths? good perimeter defender, good jump shot, athletic? upgrade from neal? potential future starter? estimated ppg if he joins?

[hater]

[timvp]

This thread has all the info you could want:

http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=193057

Particularly MI21's post.

FWIW, I've seen Patty play earlier this year/late last year in my local Australian league. Now the Aussie league is by no means stellar, but it does have pretty good guard play. Mills was hyped up beyond belief being a returneing Aussie NBA player. He struggled with the pressure and did not play well. He put up points at crap %'s and that's about it. But he is much better than that.

His last season in Portland was pretty good. He is a good spark off the bench, a real hit or miss type, but he has legitimate NBA speed and shot when on. My scouting report would go something like this --

PROS

- Lightning fast
- Has good range on his shot extending out past 3pt line
- Solid ball handler
- Knows how to play off of the ball
- Tries hard on defense
- Good transition player
- Has a lot of energy and brings some spirit onto the floor

CONS

- Court vision isn't where it should be
- Poor decision maker
- Struggles running an offense
- Below par defender due to size, defensive knowledge
- Struggles to finish in paint due to size, leaping ability
- Poor off hand skills

Basically, what you are getting here is a guy who can score a bit from the perimeter, get out on transition, handle the ball as long as he doesn't get fancy and provide a spark. You will also get bad defense, some turnovers due to bad decisions and not a lot of scoring in the paint.

If he improves his court vision and awareness he could become a valuable 2nd string PG because he can get in the paint and collapse a defense, it's just he doesn't know what to do with the ball once he does. Defensively he will always struggle.

Overall, I like the signing and he is very good insurance at 3rd PG.

Spurs