Patrick "Paddy" Mills

[Fan from VT]

I caught some of the USA vs. Australia game today, and some of this was mentioned in the "international" thread, but I thought it would be fun to start a thread in the draft forum.

It's early, but I had never heard of the guy, but the announcer's mentioned that Mills plays at St. Mary's, and was a freshman last season.

Keep an eye on him as a possible second round sleeper next year, or a pick 2-3 years from now. Like I said, he's young, so plenty of chance to improve.

Watching the game, he is insanely fast. He blew by USA point guards (particularly Derron Williams) a few times. He's small, but could be a Monte Ellis/Louis Williams type of slashing energetic scorer in the pros.

He came off the bench for Australia, shot 5-11, 13 pts, 1 ast, 1reb, 1 to. He really sparked the team and in my opinion was a huge reason the game stayed so close.

As a freshman at St. Mary's, here were his stats:

32 minutes, 14.8 pts, 2.1 rbs, 3.5 asts, 2.8 to, 1.8 stl, 1.6 fouls, .429%, .323 3p%, .761 ft%

I'm going to keep an eye on him next season (especially since I used to live out west near St. Mary's), but here's -what I like so far:
-good steals
-great speed
-nose for scoring
-positive asst/to differential
-can hit free throws
-led team in scoring and assists; St. Mary's was good enough to rank top 25 in the AP poll last season at one point, and finished out of the top 25 but still received some votes)
-More steals than fouls (look up the pg's drafted this year, even ones known for defense: chalmers was even, Rose and Westbrook had more fouls than steals).

here's what he can't change:
-he's small.

I'd like to see improvement in 1 or more areas:
-overall field goal percentage
-three point percentage (getting a money outside shot would help him tremendously)
-increase asst/to ratio either by cutting down to's or increasing assts. 


Interestingly enough, DraftExpress's draft bio says he does not have great speed, and instead relies on his solid skill set for his success. Watching the pre-olympic game, he looked blazing fast. DraftExpress does say he has great wingspan, a good sign for a player his height. And DraftExpress also touts his outside shooting, but I'd like to see a higher percentage for a player that small, because he'll have a harder time getting his shot off in the pros at his size. Someone like Chalmers was above .400 from college threes, for example.

Anyway, keep an eye out.

[Amonkey]

I think ESPN's article says that he runs a 49 second 400m.  That is pretty insanely fast meaning he can run at a fast pace for a long period of time.

[Fan from VT]

yeah, the world record 400 is 43.18, so 49 for a basketball player is very fast.

like i said, DraftExpress said he was skilled but not "rocket fast," but from what I say, in game, he looked blazing fast. I think DraftExpress made an error in this case, unless the knock on his speed is an older observation and he really improved it, because you can improve sprinting through specific workouts.

[kw10]

Wow...good to see a thread just for Paddy Mills.

I've had the fortune of watching Mills probably a little bit more than most of you. He is an amazing talent. I just want to add, he seems he has good basketball IQ too, which is great, and I believe he can be a solid player in the NBA.

[Slugger]

For Mills to be a successful NBA player, he really needs to learn how to stay in front of his man.  For all the times he blew by D-Will and CP3, he gave up just as much penetration.

He will learn though.

[houlana]

For Mills to be a successful NBA player, he really needs to learn how to stay in front of his man.  For all the times he blew by D-Will and CP3, he gave up just as much penetration.

He will learn though.

true that, but let us not forget that these guys are probably gona be if not already the top to PG's in the NBA. they blow by many NBA players and usually command a double team. so i was impressed that he went by All stars on the U.S. squad, but not that they went by him.
very impressed by his performance, first time i ever saw him play

[jackson_34]

Nice to see a thread on him. I first noticed him on an aussie basketball site a few years ago that ranks the best prospects of oz by age, He was second behind Andrew Ogivly who's currently at vanderbilt i think.

Then I got to watch him tear up the under 19 world champs with ogilvy last year and just thinking to myself, "this is the quickest player I have ever seen grace a basketball court". He can basically initiate a fast break even if most of the opponent are back in their half! He got through traffic with ease in that tournament.

Good to see him getting some recognition. Also someone on realgm made a good point concerning mills in one of his posts;
"After a more than solid olympic performance at Athens in 2004, a 19year old Andrew Bogut produced a brilliant somphomore season for Utah, hopefully this goes the same way for Mills this year."   

[boggle]

I live in Shanghai and got to go to the US - Australia game.  Mills was electric.  I actually came to the forum just to see if anyone had commented on it and was pleased to see this thread.  It shocked me how easily he ran right past Chris Paul - one of the quickest players in the NBA - like he was standing still.  I remember at least a couple of times when he basically ran straight past the entire US team for a lay-up.  Admittedly, he didn't seem to have as big an impact in the second half, but from my perspective he was the highlight of the game.  Definitely someone to keep an eye on.  If he can consistently play like that I'm not sure there is anyone on the NBA who is quick enough to guard him one-on-one.

[kw10]

Nice to see a thread on him. I first noticed him on an aussie basketball site a few years ago that ranks the best prospects of oz by age, He was second behind Andrew Ogivly who's currently at vanderbilt i think.

Can you provide a link to the aussie basketball site please?

P.S. I don't need the page on Mills but just the site in general.

[JSD]

I haven't seen much of this guy. Could he be a 1st round pick if he left college after his Junior year as appose to his sophomore year?

[kw10]

I haven't seen much of this guy. Could he be a 1st round pick if he left college after his Junior year as appose to his sophomore year?

I think he can, but I might be biased haha...

Maybe we can draft him next year Jsaad 

[JSD]

I haven't seen much of this guy. Could he be a 1st round pick if he left college after his Junior year as appose to his sophomore year?

I think he can, but I might be biased haha...

Maybe we can draft him next year Jsaad 

If you don't accept a promotion we'll definitely have to consider it

[kw10]

I haven't seen much of this guy. Could he be a 1st round pick if he left college after his Junior year as appose to his sophomore year?

I think he can, but I might be biased haha...

Maybe we can draft him next year Jsaad 

If you don't accept a promotion we'll definitely have to consider it

I think I'll make that my condition of not accepting a promotion 
But these Rockets logo sure looks neat. Plus Brad Newley (another Aussie) got drafted by them.

[Fan from VT]

Quick update:

Looks like Mills isn't so off the radar as he gets mentioned in Ford's International Prospect List for the Olympics:

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer08/basketball/columns/story?columnist=ford_chad&page=NBADraf****ch-080807

If there is someone else to keep an eye on in the Olympics beside Rubio, it is Australia's Patrick Mills. The Australians continue to produce some serious basketball players -- Aussie Andrew Bogut was the first pick in the 2005 NBA draft and center Nathan Jawai was drafted in the second round this year. This Australian national team has two NBA prospects -- Mills and Joe Ingles.

Mills is a super-quick combo guard who played for Saint Mary's (Calif.) last season as a freshman, averaging 14.8 points per game and 3.5 assists. Mills put on a show against Team USA in a warm-up game, leading the Australian team with 13 points off the bench. Mills, like Jawai, is an indigenous Australian from a tiny place called Thursday Island. He has the speed and quickness that NBA teams love in their point guards, but he is a bit undersized and an inconsistent shooter -- think a poor man's Tony Parker.

Through 3 games Australia has lost to Croatia and Argentina and beaten Iran. Here's Mill's averages so far:
22.67 mpg
15.33 ppg
2.00  assts
2.33  rebs
1.67  steals
1.00  turnovers
5.67  fg made
11.00 fg attempts (51.52%)
1.67  3p fg made
3.33  3p fg attempts (50%)

Still, he's worth keeping track of, as next year he might be a second rounder, and if he waits, he might move up to late first round, where we'd hopefully be drafting.