Ballin' is a Habit

PATTY MILLS TO STAY IN THE DRAFT: The St. Mary's point guard, who put himself in the national spotlight after lighting up team USA for 20 in the Olympics, will be staying in the draft.

"In my head, I'm 100 percent in," Mills told the San Jose Mercury News after working out with a dozen players at the Golden State Warriors facility. "There's a great opportunity for me to play in the NBA this year and I'm trying to make the most of the opportunity."

Patty Mills may have played his last game as a Gael.
(photo credit: OregonLive)

He said the only way that he would be coming back to school was if enough teams told him that he needed another year of seasoning in college, and he "hasn't heard that as of yet".

There are a couple of issues at hand here. The first, and probably most influential, is that Mills may still be trying to capitalize on his success during the Olympics. As good as he is, the fact remains that he would be returning to a West Coast Conference school, which would severely limit the national exposure that he would receive. It only gets worse when you consider St. Mary's will be losing five seniors (three starters), including all-WCC forward Diamon Simpson.

I doubt that there is any way that his stock could ever be as high as it was after the Olympics, and in fact it could probably only get hurt by returning to school, especially if he were to suffer another freak injury (if you remember, he broke his right hand against Gonzaga late in the season).

So while this might be the time that his stock is the highest, this year's point guard crop is very deep (Brandon Jennings, Ricky Rubio, Tyreke Evans, Steph Curry, Jrue Holiday, Jonny Flynn, Jeff Teague, Eric Maynor, Ty Lawson, and Darren Collison are all eligible this year and rated above Mills by Draft Express). Mills could very well be a late first round pick (Draft Express has him going 29th, NBADraft.net has him at 20th), it is a risky decision given that second rounders don't get guaranteed money and there are so many other talented point guards available.

But all it takes is one team to fall in love with him. Europe also would not be a terrible option for Mills, as he is Australian and thus would not count against the cap on Americans.