Patty Mills
Miami Heat

Player Facts

Height: 6'1"
Weight: 180lbs.

Wingspan: 6'2"

Date of Birth: Aug. 11, 1988
College Experience: Saint Mary's (2 years)

Selections

All Star: 0
All-NBA: 0
All-Defensive: 0

Player Grades

Speed/Explosiveness: 9
Physical Strength: 4
Positional Size: 5
Positional Wingspan: 3
Paint Scoring: 5
Midrange Scoring: 6
Three-Point Scoring: 9
Dribbling: 7
Passing: 7
Perimeter Defense: 5
Interior Defense: 4
Rebounding: 3

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JUMP TO SECTION

> Intro

> Off-Ball Havoc

> System Shooting

> Cutting + Layups

> DHO Damage

> Cerebral Defense

> Shorter Stature - Offense

> Shorter Stature - Defense

> Beacon Bacon

>Link to Player Contract & Salary Info

*All short clips courtesy of NF Highlights & Smart Highlights (YouTube)

*All statistical data courtesy of NBA Advanced Stats

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STRENGTHS

Intro

The 6'1" Aussie is a smart guard with blistering speed. He's also a great shooter off movement from three-point land. Patty Mills competes hard and plays intelligent defense to partly conceal his physical limitations.

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Off-Ball Havoc

The speedster zips around the half-court, flying off screens. His high-level foot speed makes it that much harder to stay attached to the dangerous shooter. If nothing else, he tires out opposing defenders with his flurry of routes. 2021-2022 had him in the top-30 for volume of points off screens.

Patty's frenetic motion is a major part of why he's such a great off-ball guard. His style of play unlocks his strengths (speed, shooting off movement) and hides his weaknesses (medium-level playmaking at guard, short stature). He discovered his niche in the league relatively early on and has never looked back.

System Shooting

He has had the luxury of playing within Popovich's gorgeous offensive systems. One of these squads was the 2013-2014 Spurs which featured some jaw-dropping ball and player movement. Patty and his off-ball game fit neatly into this system, and he hit over 40% of his postseason threes en route to their championship.

More recently, Patty has spaced the floor for players such as DeMar DeRozan, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Dejounte Murray. Out of necessity at just 6'1", he gets good elevation on his jumper and has a split-second release. 2019-2020 had him score 193 spot-up points and ultimately land a in the 95th percentile here. 2020-2021 still saw him in the 84th percentile here.

Year after year, Mills logs great catch-and-shooting seasons. Like clockwork, he's nailing 36-43% of his triples off-the-catch. The Canberra native is even more accurate in the corners, swishing 45% + of his corner threes each season from 2016-2017 to 2020-2021.

Cutting + Layups

The speedy Mills can flow from running off a pindown to juking into a basket cut. When given the chance, he gets the ball high up on the glass to avoid the eager hands of shot-blockers. Overall, he posted a formidable 1.33 points per play on cuts in 2018-2019.

Patty picks his spots judiciously as a scorer. This becomes especially apparent in looking at his paint shots. The opportunistic Aussie turns on the jets against lumbering bigs checking him in space.

On cuts, in transition, and on the odd dribble drive Mills shot a low-yet-efficient 119 of 183 (65%) at the basket over 2018-2019 + 2019-2020. Patty loves the inside-hand scoop layup in particular.

DHO Damage

Shifting to his DHO offense, Patty scores and facilitates in a couple of ways. The dribble handoff is a favorite of his, quickly pulling the trigger from downtown right upon the retrieval. In fact, he was in the 83rd percentile scoring on these actions in 2019-2020. A gleaming 1.11 points per play figure outpaced Bradley Beal, Zach LaVine, Devin Booker and Jamal Murray.

He also makes quick reads on these DHO's. He is very unselfish and will give it right back to his big if Mills attracts that second defender. Since his early twenties, Patty has established himself as a low-turnover player.

Exactly like his DHO placement in 2019-2020, he was also in the 83rd percentile scoring in pick-and-rolls. His approach here is similar - fire the three if it's there or else make the right pass.

Cerebral Defense

The veteran guard understands his defensive role and plays it well. He uses his speed to stay connected to shooters. His ability to change directions quickly gives him a good chance of sticking with them regardless of their attempts at misdirection.

An additional defensive asset for Patty is his ability to scamper over screens. He was in the 65th percentile guarding pick-and-roll initiators in 2019-2020. Mills was also in the 73rd percentile checking handoff recipients that season.

The experienced guard almost always demonstrates that he knows where to be as a team defender. This strength shows up in his ability to draw some charges and swipe some steals. The thing holding him back from being an even more prolific defensive playmaker is a lack of size/length.

WEAKNESSES

Shorter Stature - Offense

Patty's lack of size has always been somewhat of an issue for him on the court. His reach is subpar as well with that short 6'2" wingspan. At 6'1", 180 lbs., he barely has the size to play the one.

While his playmaking toolkit is fine, Mills cannot spearhead an offense for long stretches. This means the Australian guard finds himself shuttled off-the-ball.

He's a prolific off-ball guard but having better size to see over the defense and make plays would have been a nice component to add to his on-ball skillset. Due to his size, he can't always take his time delivering downhill feeds.

2019-2020 had him only average 2.8 pick-and-roll possessions per game as the ball-handler. He did well as a scorer in these actions but didn't set the table for his teammates as well as you'd like. Patty only averaged 2.9 assists per-36 that year followed by a marginally better 3.5/36 the following season.

Shorter Stature - Defense

Patty's diminutive frame continues to plague him in a couple of defensive areas. One of these is the rebounding department. While an expert at scurrying to track down a long carrom, the lean and undersized Mills cannot rebound much amongst the trees.

The other defensive area where Mills' size proves problematic is when defending in isolation. His off-ball defensive positioning, screen navigation, anticipation skills, and overall energy levels are all formidable. However, no amount of energy can compensate for his small frame in certain matchups.

Sturdier guards can simply power through the 6'1" Patty. He was in only the 26th percentile defending isolations in 2018-2019, then the 46th in 2019-2020, then back down to the 27th in 2020-2021. To avoid this altogether, he's often thrust into the chaser role rather than starting out on talented on-ball scoring guards.

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bacon
Beacon Bacon

Patty had the second-shortest respective height and wingspan measured at his Draft Combine