I caught some of the USA vs. Australia game today, and some of this was mentioned in the "international" thread, but I thought it would be fun to start a thread in the draft forum.
It's early, but I had never heard of the guy, but the announcer's mentioned that Mills plays at St. Mary's, and was a freshman last season.
Keep an eye on him as a possible second round sleeper next year, or a pick 2-3 years from now. Like I said, he's young, so plenty of chance to improve.
Watching the game, he is insanely fast. He blew by USA point guards (particularly Derron Williams) a few times. He's small, but could be a Monte Ellis/Louis Williams type of slashing energetic scorer in the pros.
He came off the bench for Australia, shot 5-11, 13 pts, 1 ast, 1reb, 1 to. He really sparked the team and in my opinion was a huge reason the game stayed so close.
As a freshman at St. Mary's, here were his stats:
32 minutes, 14.8 pts, 2.1 rbs, 3.5 asts, 2.8 to, 1.8 stl, 1.6 fouls, .429%, .323 3p%, .761 ft%
I'm going to keep an eye on him next season (especially since I used to live out west near St. Mary's), but here's -what I like so far:
-good steals
-great speed
-nose for scoring
-positive asst/to differential
-can hit free throws
-led team in scoring and assists; St. Mary's was good enough to rank top 25 in the AP poll last season at one point, and finished out of the top 25 but still received some votes)
-More steals than fouls (look up the pg's drafted this year, even ones known for defense: chalmers was even, Rose and Westbrook had more fouls than steals).
here's what he can't change:
-he's small.
I'd like to see improvement in 1 or more areas:
-overall field goal percentage
-three point percentage (getting a money outside shot would help him tremendously)
-increase asst/to ratio either by cutting down to's or increasing assts.
Interestingly enough, DraftExpress's draft bio says he does not have great speed, and instead relies on his solid skill set for his success. Watching the pre-olympic game, he looked blazing fast. DraftExpress does say he has great wingspan, a good sign for a player his height. And DraftExpress also touts his outside shooting, but I'd like to see a higher percentage for a player that small, because he'll have a harder time getting his shot off in the pros at his size. Someone like Chalmers was above .400 from college threes, for example.
Anyway, keep an eye out.