Patty Mills has been linked to four teams in the last ten days

Personally, I thought the NBA Draft was crazy. There were so many trades it was hard to follow who was drafted where. Players donned caps for teams in which they may never don jerseys.

The top six draft picks (Wembanyama, Brandon Miller, Scoot Henderson, The Thompson Twins, and Anthony Black) went unscathed. But from there, 38 of the remaining picks were traded or had already been traded before picking began. Not to mention two teams, the Chicago Bulls and Philadelphia 76ers, had their second round picks forfeited due to tampering.

Now, free agency seems as ludicrous.

When the season ended, Patty Mills was a member of the Brooklyn Nets. On July 6, Mills and a 2028 second round draft pick (via Milwaukee) was traded to the Houston Rockets in exchange for future draft considerations.

Two days later, Mills was sent to the Oklahoma City Thunder along with a 2024 second-round draft pick, a 2029 second-round draft pick and a 2030 second-round draft pick from the Houston Rockets as part of a five-team trade. The Thunder will send cash considerations to the Atlanta Hawks.

In keeping with the 48 hour timeline, Mills is now heading to Atlanta. In exchange, OKC picks up TyTy Washington Jr., Usman Garuba, former Spurs forward Rudy Gay, and a future second-round pick. Gay was just traded to the Hawks for John Collins.

The Hawks just gave another former Spur, Dejounte Murray, a max contract extension.

With rumblings of a possible Trae Young trade in the mix after a lackluster result in the pairing of Young and Murray, the Collins trade shows that moves are in motion for the Hawks. Trading Collins created a $25.3 million trade exception, the largest in the NBA, and something Atlanta has a year to potentially use. The trade acquiring Mills opened up another $4.5M for the Hawks.

Will Patty Mills stay in Atlanta, or will he continue to be moved as a pawn in this intricate chess game that has teams chasing their tails? Between the new CBA, luxury taxes, draft picks, and free agency, we have already seen some huge players moved.

An aging Chris Paul being traded for a spritely Jordan Poole — who just finished his best season — highlights a defining moment as he looks to become the highest paid bench guard of all time.

James Harden and Damian Lillard still have not landed while others, Atlanta for sure, are making moves.

Could they be interested in tossing their hat into the ring for an aging superstar?

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