Patrick Mills: NBA Draft Profile

Class: Sophomore

Position: PG

Height: 6’0”

Weight: 175lbs

Accolades: Australian National Team, Honorable Mention All-Freshman - CHN (08), Mid-Major Freshman of the Year - CHN (08), First Team

Mid-Major All-Freshman - CHN (08), First Team All-WCC (08), WCC Newcomer of the Year (08), Australian Under-19 National Team, Australia Junior National Men’s Team.

Scouting Report: A diminutive, explosive scoring point guard.

Strengths: Lightning quick. Great at splitting double teams. Can get past the defense and to the rim whenever he feels like. Can hit jumpers over taller defenders. Very good scorer for a point guard. Strong free throw shooter. Deep range on his jumper. Quick hands gets him lots of steals. Confident and poised. Great experience playing internationally for Australia.

Weaknesses: Undersized for the NBA - probably is really under-six feet. Needs to get physically stronger. Missed a large chunk of his sophomore year due to injury. Poor shot-selection - barely shoots over 40% from the floor. More of a scorer than a playmaker - almost averages as many turnovers as assists. Takes a lot of shots. Settles for outside jumpers too often. Horrible at drawing fouls.

Projected 2009 Draft Range: Late lottery to mid first round pick.

Consensus: Patrick Mills’ outstanding Olympic performance opened a lot of people’s eyes as to what kind of NBA player he could be. But realistically, he is a vastly undersized point guard who looks for his own shot first, which doesn’t add up to a super promising NBA career. He needs to prove he can play like a true point guard to ensure himself a long career.