If it does pan out, Mills will be teamed with Boomers head coach Brett Brown.

Mills' signing will take the Spurs out of the bidding for veteran guard Derek Fisher, who is expected to have his contract bought out by the Houston Rockets after the Los Angeles Lakers traded him. The Spurs have needed someone to help back up All-Star point guard Tony Parker after T.J. Ford recently announced his retirement.

The Spurs haveannounced that they have obtained forward Stephen Jackson from the Golden State Warriors. In exchange, San Antonio sent Richard Jefferson, T.J. Ford and a protected 2012 first round draft pick to the Warriors.

Fantastic News!!!!

a big f*** you to all that didn't believe me when i said patty will not go play euroleauge

All class benno...

Wishing Mills all the best. Very good news indeed.

Benno - pretty sure the big news here is Patty going back to the NBA and for a team that should go past the first round (I say should!)

yeah patty has done well, a superstar team with a great knowledgeable point guard he can learn from, assistant coach is the Australian national team coach i really couldn't see him in a better situation

As a Spurs fan...hell yes!

I thought the Sydney Kings were going to sign him next season .....lol

When will he play his first game with them?

When will he play his first game with them?

Houston and Detroit appear to have also been pursuing Mills, I like the decision to go to Spurs. Especially with an elderly point guard. 2 years with the second year being a player option

Who's the elderly point guard? Surely youre not talking about Parker?

Patty can learn so much from Parker and a great system at the spurs compared with the Blazers..can't wait to see him take to the court

Love this move for a few reasons. Spurs have a great knack for getting the best out of role players, Pop in a fantastic respected coach who will teach good habits, Tony Parker should be able to help Patty with his game and just being around him and seing how ho goes about it will help. And finally being under the nose of the National coach can only be a good thing.

I was one of the persons who said he may have seen his last game
in the NBA. absolutely wish him the best, but you're kidding yourselves if you don't think Brett brown being the coach of the boomers didn't have something to do with it.

That said, this is great for the boomers and especially patty working with a great coach like Pop. The worst case scenario though is Pop using him as instant offense off the bench. I want him to turn into a proper, well balanced point guard, not encourage his chucking.

How many Aussies have played for Spurs now? Gaze, Heal and Mills. Any others?

Just the three Aussies have played for the Spurs.
Bulls & Timberwolves are second with two Aussies played

Wolves - three (Longley, Heal, Jawai)

Awesome news for him...this could really boost his career being in a team that he can gain so much personnally from as well as professionally. Will be good to see him really develop

Mick,
2 other teams the pistons and rockets where chasing mills and the pistons also offered a 2 year deal, so I am pretty sure it would have got a deal without Brown

Mick - the only thing Brett Brown would have to do with it is knowing Patty and his game really well and being able to discuss it with first hand knowledge.

You're kidding yourself if you think an assistant coach can get a guy signed if the head coach and the rest of the operations staff don't want him.

Spurs have been the benchmark in terms of recruitment and franchise management for a long time (able to draft well internationally, get great production from cast-offs and journeyman, remain an elite team consistently). Great vote of confidence for Patty that the Spurs and Popovich want him on the team.

Hopefully he gets a multi-year deal. Anyone know if that is on the cards?

The only thing I hope is that they use him as a traditional PG and develop that part of his game rather than as an instant offense bench gunner. Patty is a heck of a talent and is just lacking PG skills at this point.

Playing with Parker will really help him learn how to finish at the rim without being super athletic, which is another thing he has to work on.

I couldn't really think of a better situation for him, to be honest. Never imagined him ending up with the spurs but it's great news for him and his future potential.

TJ Ford was an NBA journeyman/role player and he retired, haven't heard that happen for years.

Great news. No doubt Brett Brown's good word on him would have made an enormous difference, but that word would have meant little unless he had the international performances etc under his belt and some impressive showings with Portland last year.

curtley - TJ Ford recently suffered another neck injury. A few seasons ago he was nearly paralysed by an injury that would normally occur in a car accident.

It looks like this latest injury was enough to make him think he might no be walking for much longer if he kept playing basketball. It's a shame, he was a fringe all-star back with the Bucks pre-injury