Mills exercises player option, will stay with Spurs

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The San Antonio Spurs have announced point guard Patty Mills will exercise the player option in his contract to remain with the Spurs for the 2013-2014 NBA season.

Mills, who saw himself fall to the third backup point guard behind Tony Parker in the rotation during the regular season, played in 58 games this season averaging 5.1 points in 11.3 minutes per game, and he shot 46.9% from the field and 40% from 3-point range.

Mills played in nine games during the Spurs' playoff run that stretched all the way to the NBA Finals. Though he didn't receive much playing time both in the season and in the playoffs, he was a constant energy force for the Spurs on the bench as his towel-waving strategy made him a fan favorite with consistent devotion to his team in being that line of energetic support throughout the games.

Eight days ago, Mills was put on the injury report due to an infection in his right foot. Mills went through successful surgery to have the abscess removed from his foot.

As to where Mills will fall in the rotation next season, he'll again be battling for minutes with Cory Joseph, who had a consistent outing in the playoffs, second year French guard Nando De Colo, who showed strides of improvement in commanding the offense in the regular season, but saw Joseph receive the backup point guard minutes.

Mills and the Spurs' guards will also have to be aware of the Spurs' activity in both the NBA draft Thursday or in trades and free agency when free agent signings can begin on July 1.

With Mills opting to stay in San Antonio, the Spurs now await word from French forward Boris Diaw who has until June 30th to let the team know if he'll stay or test free agency.

Mills is set to make $1,133,950 million next season per ShamSports.com

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Paul is an editor, writer and content manager for ProjectSpurs.com (@ProjectSpurs) and AnalyzingTheLeague.com (@ATLeague_NBA). Paul is also the host of the Spurscast (@TheSpurscast). Paul has been a credentialed media member covering the San Antonio Spurs and NBA since 2011. Paul has been featured on numerous radio, tv, online and podcast shows.