Patty Mills is an anomaly. He came into the league as an end-of-the-bench player, playing 74 games for Portland over two years and averaging about four and 12 minutes in his first and second seasons, respectively. During the NBA lockout that followed his second season, Mills played for several international teams, including an Australian and a Chinese team. Eventually the lockout ended but Mills continued to play in international leagues. After Mills received a suspension from the Chinese league for allegedly faking a hamstring injury, he became determined to prove himself an NBA-caliber player again. A video of that season in his life can be found here:
That’s the earliest sign I can find of it, the unceasing and relentless level of motivation, work ethic, and drive that he has. Now, I’m sure to become a professional athlete you need to have an unusually high work ethic anyway, especially when it comes to physical training, but Mills takes it to a whole new level.
As Spurs fans, we caught a glimpse of Mills’ drive during the past season. Some perspective of a player: you work your whole life to get this opportunity. Along the way, you were the best player at your high school, maybe even your college, logging more hours in the gym practicing and working out than anyone else. Finally you’re in the NBA and your dream is now your profession, but your coach plays you for 10 minutes a game, most of it garbage time. It’s understandable why this frustrates many players, but makes it even more amazing when players respond to that in a completely different way.
The narrative I just described was surely one of Mills in the 2012-2013 season. But instead of complaining as many players do, Mills found a way to contribute to his team from the bench. He was the first one on his feet after a good play, cheering with a multitude of different towel waves, and the first one to greet his teammates as they huddled during a timeout. He learned how to be a great teammate while playing limited minutes. Little did he or anyone else know that this established one of the most important, if not the most important, qualities that molded Mills into a key contributor.
Mills responded and grew in the offseason as well. Reportedly, he made a bet with Boris Diaw, who challenged Mills to drop below 7% body fat. Honestly, I think Mills had already determined to become physically prepared to help his team in the upcoming season before the wager was conceived. The way he responded to not being played as much as he wanted was not complaining about it, but getting good enough that head coach Gregg Popovich would be crazy not to play him more. For the sake of an easy comparison, Nando de Colo was in a very similar position to Mills during the 2013 playoff run. Instead of responding in the way Mills did, de Colo made it very clear in an interview with French reporters that he was unhappy with the minutes he was receiving. Not surprisingly, he didn’t see any real playing time the rest of those playoffs or in the early parts of 2013-2014 before finally being traded to the Raptors.
All of this work in the offseason as well as Mills’ team-first mentality resulted in easily the best season of his career. He averaged the most minutes played per game in his career, and for good reason. Almost every lineup that the Spurs used that featured Mills significantly outplayed opposing lineups in many measurable categories. During the playoffs, lineups that featured Mills averaged 5.3 more 3-pointers made, almost 15 more points, 7.3 more assists, and four more steals than the opposing team per 100 possessions. Individually, he made many significant leaps from the 2012-2013 season to the most recent one. His points per game doubled from 5.1 to 10.2, his assist numbers rose from 1.1 to 1.8, and his 3-point shooting percentage per game increased as well. But he didn’t just improve offensively.
During the regular season, opposing teams saw their effective field-goal percentage drop when Mills was on the court. Opponents also got a smaller percentage of available rebounds and fewer assists when Mills was playing. The Spurs had more steals and forced more turnovers due to his efforts on defense as well. This increased contribution on offense and defense was helpful in many ways. It helped run down opposing point guards, who are usually the distributors when they are on the floor. Mills’ ability to generate forced shots and turnovers against the opponents was a large reason that the Foreign Legion was able to outscore opposing second units by such a wide margin most nights.
Due to some new innovations in sports statistics, we are able to get a few measurements that give a clear indication to some of Mills’ strong intangible qualities as well. With the development of player tracking cameras for statistical use, average running speed of a player is now measurable. During the regular season, Mills tied for the fastest player, running an average of 4.8 mph. In the playoffs he stood alone as the fastest, averaging 4.9 mph. He continued to be incredibly effective in the Finals, as the small-ball combo of Tony Parker and Mills in the backcourt will always be an underrated factor in why the Spurs won the 2014 Championship so convincingly.
One of Mills’ most memorable performances surely will be hitting four 3-pointers in the third quarter of Game 5, effectively putting the Heat away and assuring victory, and consequently the championship. In that series he produced the second highest 3-point percentage of any Spur, behind Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard, and also shot an incredibly efficient 72.4 effective field goal percentage. While Miami searched for some quality point-guard play, the Spurs excelled at that position. A large reason for this was the excellent play Mills provided off of the bench.
Mills was instrumental in the Spurs title run due to both his skill and his work ethic. It will be very interesting to see how the second squad adjusts to his absence in the early parts of the 2014-2015 season. Since he was such an essential part of creating offense off the bench and disrupting opponents, Popovich will have to make some clever adjustments to maintain the bench scoring we became so accustomed to this year. Here’s to wishing Mills a very speedy, healthy recovery. Knowing him, he will play as soon as the doctors clear him, contributing to what will hopefully be another championship run.