“And I see your true colours, shining through…”
Patrick Mills was drafted by the Portland Trail Blazers with the 55th pick of the draft yesterday. As both a proud Aussie and a long-suffering Portland Trail Blazers fan, I could not be happier. As happy as a pig in mud. Here we can see Patty’s true colours shining through, just a little bit.
The word out of Portland is that he is not likely to have a roster spot in the 15, in the immediate sense anyway. General Manager Kevin Pritchard and coach Nate McMillan definitely implied that he will be playing a large role in the Summer League team, so the feisty point guard will get a chance to show his wares there. He’ll have to impress to try and force a spot on the permanent roster for the 2009/10 season.
Otherwise the plan may be for Patty to play overseas somewhere — as noted on Blazersedge, Pritchard was quoted as saying that Mills “has a passport” which makes him more valuable in that they don’t have to sign him immediately but can watch him develop overseas, in the same way as the Houston Rockets have done with Brad Newley playing in Greece.
Meanwhile, what other entertainment can we take from the recent festivities of Draft Day?
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Deadspin has a fascinating, yet playful piece with a body language expert who examines some of the top picks in the draft and how they shake hands with the Commish. Funny stuff.
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bleacher/report‘s Matt King grades the draft night suits worn by the youngsters. As usual, some impressed, some were just downright weird.
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Ball Don’t Lie‘s Kelly Dwyer rates each of the GMs on how they fared in the Draft. Incidentally, KD was tweeting up a storm
during the Draft — nice work, my man.
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With Malice has a great story about a guy called Bruce Manley who is going to take the Shaq on in HORSE… or maybe SUBWAY. Oh and in case you’ve been asleep for a couple of days, Shaq, aka the Big Cavtus (formerly the Big Cactus) is now a Cleveland Cavalier. The Biggest Witness.
Lastly, here’s Patty Mills preparing for the draft, trying on his new suit. Nice work mate — there is a whole country that is proud of you.
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