With the the $3-4M we have left over, I'd look to tender an offer sheet to Patrick Mills. The Blazers have a stacked backcourt at both positions and they're on the verge of adding Wes Matthews Jr. if Utah doesn't match the offer sheet the Blazers just presented him (5 yrs, $34M). Whether they get Matthews or not, the backcourt situation is still overly crowded and I don't see how Mills ever gets a shot there.
I think that pound for pound, Mills is the best available PG out there right now (CJ Watson is a quality guard that's still available but I think he'll be looking for too much money based on his experience & success at the NBA level). Mills is very comparable to Watson and the price should be much better considering he was picked 55th last year and unlike Watson, hasn't had any success at the NBA level yet..That's not to say he can't play, he can, and I believe has potential to do so at a very high level. He's come back strong from injury (broken wrist in college, broken foot last summer) and there's no doubt in my mind that he's ready for a job in the NBA, either as a 15-20 min. backup PG or perhaps something more. He has nothing left to prove at the D-League level, where he ripped it up last year at over 25 ppg including 38/12/3 in his first d-league game ever and then 30 pts. in the d-league all-star game. He deserves a shot in the NBA as a backup PG..Only 21 years old at the moment, lightning quick, excellent penetrator, good handle, very good passer, good shooter with range and he's showing this summer that he's more than capable of being a ball hawk & really moving his feet well on defense. In fact he talked about that after Portland's win over NO yesterday..Most importantly it looks like Mills is completely comfortable running a team despite being a scoring PG. I really don't see any deficiencies in his game at all...TD looks a lot more mechanical and unsure of himself by comparison and I agree that we could be in trouble if anything ever happened to Felton for a long stretch. We added a few nice pieces this off-season but still need quality PG play to make it work. I'd like to add some more PG depth.. When you compare Toney Douglas to Mills who went 55, it looks like we really reached for TD in last year's draft. I think Mills is the superior talent not too mention about 3 years younger...I say present an offer sheet to this guy, something like 2 yrs. $4M total or possibly overload a one year deal and see if the Blazers match. I think they might just decide to give him up, esp. if they landed Matthews. And if they don't, I think a reasonable deal could be worked out. There's been a lot of praise for Darren Collison and rightly so based on what he did last year filling in for Paul. I think Mills has similar ability to Collison..I actually think Mills is one of the better kept secrets in the NBA right now. We could be looking at an even quicker version of Mo Cheeks when it's all said and done.. Go get him. At least make an attempt...Ahhh, I know we won't -- we had a chance to get him last year and passed, instead choosing to go after TD with the 29th pick. Never too late to correct a mistake though..
