After a week and a half of rumors, reports and visa issues the San Antonio Spurs officially announced the signing of former Portland Trailblazers guard Patty Mills Tuesday. Mills will wear number eight and is not only already with the team, but is also expected to be in the Spurs lineup when they play the Suns tonight.
Mills is six feet tall and weighs about 185 pounds. He played with Portland the last two seasons and then played in the National Basketball League of Australia before playing with the Xinjian Flying Tigers of the Chinese Basketball Association. A quick aside, I really want a Xinjian Flying Tigers jersey. Mills’ is a score first point guard, so he lines right up with what the Spurs look for in a point guard.
For an in depth look what the Spurs got in Mills, check out this interview Jeff Garcia did with our Aussie mate Mookie Schiralli of A Stern Warning.
In case you’re wondering, this is what the Spurs depth chart looks like right now:
PG: Tony Parker, Gary Neal, Patty Mills, Justin Dentmon (likely going back to Austin)
SG: Danny Green, Manu Ginobili, James Anderson
SF: Kawhi Leonard, Stephen Jackson
PF: Tim Duncan, Matt Bonner, Boris Diaw
C: DeJuan Blair, Tiago Splitter
If Mills can adjust to the Spurs style quickly, they’ll have plenty of depth to get them in to the postseason as the number two seed with everyone rested and hopefully healthy.
