September 5: Mills’ contract with the Jazz is now official, the team announced in a press release.
August 14: The Jazz have agreed to sign veteran point guard Patty Mills to a one-year contract, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).
Wojnarowski says it’s a $3.3MM deal, which is equivalent to Mills’ minimum salary for 2024/25 ($3,303,771). It will be fully guaranteed, Woj adds.
Mills, who turned 36 on Sunday, will be entering his 16th NBA season this fall. The 2009 second-round pick has appeared in 892 total regular season games for five teams and spent most of his prime years in San Antonio, where he won a title in 2014 and overlapped with current Jazz head coach Will Hardy from 2015-21, when Hardy was an assistant on Gregg Popovich‘s staff.
Mills has seen his playing time and production fall off in recent years. In 2023/24, he appeared in 32 games for the Hawks and Heat and averaged just 4.0 points, 1.1 assists, and 1.1 rebounds in 13.0 minutes per game while shooting 35.1% from the field and 27.6% from the beyond the arc, far below his career averages of 42.4% and 38.6%, respectively.
However, the Australian showed during this year’s Paris Olympics that he still has something left in the tank. He averaged 16.5 PPG with a .409 3PT% over the course of the Boomers’ four games.
Mills figures to serve as a locker room leader and a mentor for the Jazz’s young players, including second-year guard Keyonte George. He projects to fill the 15th and final spot on Utah’s regular season roster, providing depth at point guard.
The club is carrying 14 other players on standard guaranteed contracts, as well as three players on two-way deals. While it’s possible the front office will continue to wheel and deal during the rest of the offseason and preseason, the Jazz’s roster will essentially be regular-season-ready once Mills is officially signed.
Smart move. George is starting with Collier learning, so what do you have behind that… A veteran. Smart move Danny. Most teams would add another young clueless guy jacking up 3s. Veterans are important people. This will only help George and Collier. Finally veterans are coming back. Silver was trying to eliminate veterans hanging around
How is signing a guy who has stunk since 2020 smart? Mills is washed beyond belief. Big waste of money. Ainge is clueless. Should have traded Lauri for Podziemski+Wiggins
lol what? This was a very smart move. Keep hating
Podz and Wiggins for Lauri is crazy. Wiggins has negative value
Warriors weren’t trading Podziemski. And lol calling a player washed and then talking about trading for Andrew Wiggins
> Most teams would add another young clueless guy jacking up 3s.
Agreed. Only teams that are tanking would add bad players. Thank goodness Danny Ainge doesn’t operate like that.
> Finally veterans are coming back. Silver was trying to eliminate veterans hanging around.
How so? The recent CBA explicitly states the objective of extending the the careers of existing NBA players, and minimum salary deals like the one Mills just signed are part of that. NBA players are having longer careers under Silver, not shorter ones.
The disrespect to Lonnie Walker from NBA teams is mind boggling…
Are you talking about his value in his game? If that’s the case then there must be something else?
Perhaps something in the locker room or as a teammate?
He’s bounced around a little bit so I wonder what the holdup is? He could be holding out for a two year guarantee or one-year guarantee or something like that.
He might figure the worst case scenario is training camp invite but that’s risky because it seems like teams are filling up with a full 15 before Camp even starts.
He clearly wants more than the minimum
Real 2k, that option “clearly” went away a while ago. Now he’s risking a year out of the NBA because roster spots are filling up fast.
How many teams even have a tryout position open before camp opens? Most teams have 15 spots filled that are guaranteed or partially guaranteed.
So it’s not about wanting a little more money than the minimum. I think he wants a guarantee of a minimum at maybe two years or even one. Wanting more than a minimum clearly went out the window a while ago.
Usually teams will invite more than 15 to training camp. They see who they like the best and cut the others. Then they can sign those others to their G-League team.
Yes true and if he doesn’t watch out Lonnie Walker will be in that boat. Looks like he’s already there which is the point of the original message. Just wondering why?
There were concerns in SAS and LAL with him only wanting to play one side of the court Gary
I think as fans we naturally gravitate towards the side he likes to play (well)
He’ll always have game 5 2023 v GSW to remember,,,, sorry just couldn’t pass that low hanging fruit up!
Could be a THT type of situation. They think they’re better, and a better value, than they really are, in this current market.
There’s so much talent in the NBA now that there isn’t enough room for everyone. The NBA really needs to expand to 32 teams sooner than later.