Australian Boomer Patrick Mills (the Australian media sticks to Patrick, whilst the American media seems to consistently refer to him as Patty), has hung onto the 15th and final roster position with the Portland Trail Blazers, according to Jason Quick of the Oregonian.
Now, clearly I’m biased in the perfect storm which presents this writer as an Aussie and a Blazers fan, but I’ve been saying all along that the Blazers would be crazy to let a player of Mills’ talent run free with another team. In short, it could come back to bite them.
Let’s break this down. On Friday, Mills was signed by the Blazers, after the team drafted him in the second round of this year’s NBA Draft. Puzzled faces circled the Blazers’ fandom as everyone had thought that Ime Udoka and Jarron Collins were the two players fighting it out at training camp and in pre-season play, for the 15th and final roster spot.
As it turns out, the injured Mills represents a much more promising option for the Blazers down the track.
Sure, as Dwight Jaynes described here, there exists the possibility that the Blazers’ hand was somewhat pushed in offering Mills a contract, as he was a second round draft pick of theirs. Let’s not forget some things however:
- Signing Udoka (the popular choice) would have been a useless move, outside of practice play, as he’d be sitting behind three other small forwards on the depth chart.
- Collins, is a big body. However he is not an other-worldly talented one. It’s not a stretch to say that if indeed we were faced with injuries to all of our centre-capable big men (Joel Przybilla, Greg Oden, Juwan Howard, LaMarcus Aldridge), that we could not find a similar big body to fill the gap down the track, or make do with small-ball with all of the talent on hand.
- This Blazers team is not only built for the here and now, but the long run. Current top-level point guards Andre Miller and Steve Blake represent two of the oldest players on the squad. There needs to be a plan for point guard replacement down the track and as yet, Jerryd Bayless has not given iron-clad proof that he is the answer.
- Mills is a unique talent in that his quicks are hard to come by. He has proven on one of the biggest stages — against Team USA with the Australian Boomers — that he can hang with the big boys.
In summary, you don’t let a player of Mills’ talent and physical gifts go, unless you really need to keep another player in his place. At this stage, there is nothing to indicate that keeping Udoka or Collins would be beneficial this season — and they certainly are not more beneficial in the long-term.
For those that haven’t watched Mills play, you need to know that he tore Chris Paul and Deron Williams apart to the tune of 20 points. Sure, it was only one game, but he certainly presents the team with an exciting player down the track. And he’s cheap (in NBA terms). As Ben at Blazersedge reminds us, the team is left with approximately $1.4m in cap space for trade shenanigans after Patty’s signing — about $300k more than would have been the case had they signed one of the vets to warm that spot.
The Blazers made the best choice. Australia is proud of you, Patrick. Now recover well from that foot injury!
