Shame it wasn't higher, but hopefully he gets picked up.

I hope he stioks... if he does I might need a blazers jersey!

Chad ford hasn't got great news for our man...

The Blazers saved Patty Mills from slipping out of the draft. If he could have jumped right after the Olympics, he would have gone much higher. He's super quick and a great kid, but he's small and a lot of teams don't believe he's a point guard. The Blazers don't really have a roster spot for him, but he might be able to continue to improve overseas.

Unfortunately POR is stacked at the PG position, with 3 PGs and Roy as a 4th primary ball handler.

Probobaly one of the worst scenarios for Mills - may have been better to not get drafted and sign as FA with any club.

Portland traded Sergio so they only have 2 PGs - hopefully he can pull off a Ramon Sessions

Congrats Patty.

The Blazers don't have a lot of PG depth. Steve Blake is the only pure PG, Bayless is a combo guard, they just dealt Rodriguez.

Seems like a decent chance to make the roster.

Oh yes how sweet it is!! I always thought he would be a good fit for us with his energy and offense.. but will Nate play him or stick with Steve Blake... hmm

Hey Shin Splints, maybe not, we traded Sergio today and the blazers were looking at point guards but guys like Lawson and collison weren't available before we picked..

Talks of trades or europe may be a tad premature, think we got lucky getting him and if he gets a chance he may push Blake and Bayless in the rotation.. B Roy can play a bit of point which would let Patty do some instant offense.. We missed an Aaron Brooks kinda instant offensive production in the playoffs and only have 2 real good scorers until Oden and maybe Webster pick up some slack..

Just give him a shot KP and Nate and I think he can push Blake and Bayless really hard

Oh tell i'm dreamimg!! looks like the old Cylde the Glide jersey maybe stepping aside for Patty's!!

If Patrick Mills plays minutes in more than 10 games next season, he's a better player than I thought he was.

thats sucks man, mills would smoke rubio any day and that little bitch went at 5! do you think the size of the markets$ in europe vs the limited market in australia effects how aussie players are rated?

Dont mind him being picked up by the Blazers should get a roster spot but Mills will be the one of the biggers sleepers in this years class. He will be a solid backup.

boom, Rubio is also 2 years younger and 4-5 inches taller than Mills, and has been playing professionally in Europe since he was 15. I don't think a few performances at the Olympics are all that GMs are judging this on. Rubio is arguably a better player already, and has a much higher ceiling than Mills IMO.

Rubio is a way way more rounded player than Mills hence him @ 5 and Mills @ 55 "boom" and thats why you didn't get to pick. Hopefully Mills will get his chance to shine

See what happens in the summer league.

I agree boom, the NBA and its clubs have jersey sales on their mind sometimes, hence yuta tabuse ever playing in the league. If Mills was from one of the major markets he definately would have gone higher.

Kevin Pritchard has made comments after the draft about the fact that Patty Mills has an international passport...

They hope to have him playing in the summer league, but it sounds like he might be a draft-and-stash pick

I'll also add some quotes from Kevin Pritchard about Mills:

"We didn't think Mills would be there at 55. It got to being late 30's & 40's, he was pretty high on our board and we were really hoping he would get there because as we go through our process he was the highest watermark for us, and we feel pretty lucky to get him"
"I don't want to get too excited about the 55th pick in the draft, but its really not where you get picked, it's how you feel about a kid. This kid's gonna come in and compete we know that. He's competed on an international level, he's had success in the Olympics. He broke his hand that probably hurt him in the draft and Nate knows him as well as anybody, Nate had a ton of input in that"

clarky, that sounds really very positive for Mills. Forget the non-guaranteed contract and that it's #55 - if he gets looked after by the Blazers, runs amok in the Summer League(s) and even D-League, then he has a great chance of picking up higher opportunities.

Shows how much Australians overatte their player.

Humpa, you and ELG would make a charming couple.

Mills article on eurobasket now:

http://linky.com.au/w6zv0

You can vote in poll too.

what i said is truth though.

There were numerous articles of Mills doing extremely well in workouts and earning coaches praise (besides Phil Jackson). Most people on this forum had Mills penciled in as an early 2nd rounder... hell some had him in the first round.

There's no coincidence that Australians overatte their basketball players.

Humpa, what about all of the mock drafts that had him going 20-40? And all the attention he recieved post-Olympics?

Many have overrated his Beijing campaign in terms of his NBA stocks, that I'd agree with, but to say that Aussies are the only ones who rated him highly simply isn't true.

Radio fiveaa were talking to his mum, and she was gonna pass the phone to Patty, but cut out... blast
She was born in SA - Pt Lincoln..
Just wonder about Jawai being his cousin.. Do you know anymore about their family?

in the paper yesterday it said that the bourgones (sp) were his cousins.

what i said is truth though.

There were numerous articles of Mills doing extremely well in workouts and earning coaches praise (besides Phil Jackson). Most people on this forum had Mills penciled in as an early 2nd rounder... hell some had him in the first round.

There's no coincidence that Australians overatte their basketball players.

Is "overatte" the new "accoucemnet"?

hahaha! nice call re Humpa/ELG Isaac

HEY EVERYONE - David Coles - The Man behind the HoopCity Website/Mag found this awesome article on DIME. I've copy and pasted the WHOLE article as it's not that long:



NBA Draft '09 Stock Watch: Patrick Mills
By Austin Burton


Mills vs. Team USA
Here's what I don't get: While you can't make it five minutes into a Ricky Rubio argument without somebody supporting his case with the concept that he "held his own" against grown men overseas and against Team USA in the Olympics, Patrick Mills gets zero credit for not just holding his own, but putting in serious work against the Redeem Team and other international juggernauts.

In almost every major test he's faced, Mills has proven himself. As the focal point of each NCAA defense that went against his Saint Mary's squad this year, the sophomore Mills averaged 18.4 points on 40% from the field and 85% at the line, plus 2.2 steals per game. Mills got the better of Stephen Curry in their NIT matchup, putting up 23 points and 10 dimes in a blowout win. Before that he dropped 27 points in an NIT win over Washington State, and despite missing nine games during the season due to injury, still clocked 10 games of 20-plus points.

Then there's the FIBA resume. In two games against Team USA last summer (one exhibition, one in the Olympics), Mills was the best player on the court for Australia, and that includes Andrew Bogut. He scored 20 against the Americans in Beijing, giving Chris Paul, Deron Williams and Jason Kidd problems. In his two outings against the U.S., Mills went for a total of 33 points, three assists and three steals. In Rubio's two games against the U.S. last summer, he had 14 points, six dimes and six steals. Mills also dropped 22 points against Argentina and its NBA-laden roster, and "held his own" against Russia and Lithuania during the Olympic tournament.

And yet, while Rubio stays in the top five of every draft board, Mills is actually slipping. Pegged as a 20-to-25 guy in the first round a couple weeks ago, the latest NBADraft.net mock has him falling into the second round, going after guys like Toney Douglas, Darren Collison and Dionte Christmas.

Why? If this were five years ago, I'd get it: Mills is small (6-foot, 180 pounds), he's a 'tweener of a PG/SG, and he plays for a mid-major. Sure, he puts up points, but so did Troy Bell and A.J. Guyton and Steve Logan, and they all played at big-time programs.

But the bad rap for 'tweeners is supposedly dead. Guys like Randy Foye, Gilbert Arenas, Nate Robinson, Ben Gordon and even Dwyane Wade have dispelled the myth that small guards who aren't pure PG's have no place in the League. And with the way the NBA game is going, any team can find space for a guy who is quick, skilled and can put the ball in the basket.

Mills has first-round talent. I really like him for the Hornets at #21 as CP's backup (the next Jannero Pargo), but I can also see him with Phoenix at #14, Atlanta at #19, and Dallas at #22, among others.

But why are we even talking about teams in that range? For somebody whose international track record is just as (if not more) impressive than Rubio's, and who has a solid body of college work on top of that, Patty Mills should be higher on everyone's board. Or perhaps Rubio should be lower.

Can you link to it in the future? There are obviously copyright issues with pasting in full articles!

This is definitely a bit of a surprise for him to fall down to 55. Mills' draft stock dropped quite a bit at the end. But most were still expecting top 10 2nd rounder.

As far as the FIBA performance, said many times it's not looked at as much as people think. We look at consistency throughout the season not just a tournament. Remember NBA is a marathon.

However, the Rubio argument is somewhat legit, many in the NBA has actually argued a bit about this; whether somebody like Rubio not attending college has some kind of advantage in comparison to Mills who attended college, where US scouts become extremely familiar with his weaknesses (each college player is pretty much "exposed", especially spending 2 yrs in the country). On the other hand, Rubio not playing in US the extent of familiarity is no where near the same.

In regard to coaches' comments on Mills? don't take them to heart, teams were told to NEVER critisize prospects through media. Undrafted Ingles also sounded fairly promosing by the voice of many coaches.

http://linky.com.au/0r7ll

LA Boy - I think the important point of that article is that Rubio's performance in the FIBA matches was given alot of attention in terms of his draft stocks, whereas Mills' wasn't.

Also, there's a difference between not criticisig players in the media, and openly singing their praises. I think the Blazers think they have got a steal at #55.

Regarding Mills being overrated by Australians, plenty of discussion boards had Mills being the 'stael of the draft' as a late first/early second rounder. Even more so at #55

Some players rise to the level of competition and Mills is one of em .

He has the fire within to reach his absolute max ceiling . What that is , guess we will find out .

Believe he can be a 10-12 minute player within the next 3 years .

Tempo lifter , all effort , can change a game and ignite the team . Fans over there will love him .

what I'm trying to say is, they'll always say positive things about prospects. is Mills a steal at 55? yeah

once again, FIBA is looked at but not a major factor. Rubio's top 5 would have been due to his performance in Europe.

Some reports are stating the Blazers GM has told reporters Mills has an 'international' passport, suggesting he will be sent overseas.

Why would they move him, he can easily play backup point behind Blake for them and Bayless is a combo gaurd. Roy will need a sit eventually and the Blazers might look to up the tempo eventually but we need to remember its not a great fit in terms of style. The Blazers play in the halfcourt and are a jump shooting team at this stage. They want a pass first point to feed Roy and Aldrige.