Patrick Mills

Growing up in his native Australia, Mills had to make the choice to continue his basketball career or to play in the Australian Football League. He was still just in 10th grade and was already being scouted by the Sydney Swans of the AFL, but instead took advantage of an opportunity to go to the Australian Institute of Sport to improve his basketball skills. Not long after that, Mills moved to St. Mary’s College in California to play Division I college basketball, going through many tough cultural changes as a result. Nonetheless, Mills had no trouble adjusting to the basketball aspect. He averaged 14.8 points as a freshman in 2007-08 and finished as the West Coast Conference's second-leading scorer the following season at 18.4 per game. The point guard opted to leave school after that and was drafted in the second round by the Portland Trail Blazers. He only appeared in 10 games as a rookie, partly due to a foot injury, and averaged 5.5 points in 64 games during the 2010-11 season. Mills played in China when the NBA lockout happened but was signed by the San Antonio Spurs in March and got a chance to showcase his talents, starting the final two games of the regular season and scoring a combined 61 points. Mills played in the 2008 Olympics, where he led Australia with 14.2 points per game and shot 52.3 percent from the field. He had 22 points against Argentina and scored 20 in a quarterfinal loss to the U.S. Mills has good vision, great range and the speed to change the pace of a game.