San Antonio Spurs: Patty Mills is having a sensational start to the season

Patty Mills has been good for the San Antonio Spurs for nine seasons. The start of his tenth season as a Spur has been simply phenomenal

The 2020-21 NBA season has started with a bang for Patty Mills. Starting his 12th season in the league, the 10th as a member of the San Antonio Spurs franchise, Mills has been incredible. He is shooting in a way not seen since he helped the Spurs win their last title in 2014.

Mills is averaging 14.0 points, 3.0 assists, 2.0 rebounds, and 0.5 steals in 23.5 minutes per game. While four games is a very small sample size, what it shows is that Mills is hurting from missing the playoffs for the first time as a Spur. He is locked on to the task of making sure that does not happen again.

Mills great start has him fourth in points per game for the Spurs this season. He is behind DeMar DeRozan (21.5), Dejounte Murray (18.5), and Lonnie Walker (14.3). He is ahead of LaMarcus Aldridge (12.0) and Rudy Gay (12.0) who have a history of getting good numbers over their careers.

The hallmark of Patty Mills’ season for the San Antonio Spurs is efficiency.

Again, I stress that four games is an incredibly small sample size. However, Mills is 19-of-33 from the floor which means he is shooting 57.6 percent from the floor. What is even more impressive is that Mills is shooting 11-of-19 from deep which is good for 57.9 percent. He has not missed any of his seven free-throws either.

Putting his shooting from deep into perspective, he is taking 4.8 shot attempts, making 2.8 of them. Every time that he is shooting the ball, you are expecting the ball to go in. The impact that this is having on spacing the floor when he is on the court is noticeable.

Mills has had a positive impact on almost every game that he has played. In the first three games, he averaged plus 12 when he was on the court. The only exception was against the Los Angeles Lakers when he was minus nine when on the court but without LaMarcus Aldridge, the Spurs were outmatched.

Mills is in a contract year so he will want this level of play to continue. He will be 33 before the 2021-22 season starts which means that this will be Mills’ last decent payday. He has lost none of his quickness and is getting smarter with his game.

The Spurs have only $57 million in committed salary for next season, but the problem is that three other key pieces of the franchise are also out of contract. These are DeRozan, Aldridge, and Gay who have been key members of the Spurs team for a while now.

Fortunately for Mills, the Spurs hold his Bird rights which allow them to offer him a better deal than any other team in the association. Depending on who the Spurs bring back, they may need Mills’ experience to help guide the younger generation.

Mills is the longest-tenured Spurs player and could play a Manu Ginobili type role well into his late 30’s. He only has to perform at this level for the next 68 games. There is no reason Mills can’t do this for the season, getting the rewards in the next offseason.