Interesting little snippet from DraftExpress regarding the Paddy Mills vs Steph Curry showdown.
20 NBA teams were on hand last night for an extremely intriguing NIT matchup between Stephen Curry’s Davidson Wildcats and Patrick Mills’ St. Mary’s Gaels. Curry finished with 27 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists, but also committed 6 turnovers and shot just 11-27 from the field. Mills also had an off night shooting the ball, making just 1-10 3-pointers, but he still managed to finish with 23 points as well a sparkling 10 assists compared with just 1 turnover. Most importantly, St. Mary’s came away with the victory at home, and now moves on to play at San Diego State (Wednesday, 9 PM EST, ESPN2) with a trip to Madison Square Garden on the line.
Curry started the game off extremely well, making a terrific move to the basket that really highlighted his quickness and ability to change speeds with the ball. He also pulled up and knocked down an absolutely ridiculous shot from about 26-feet out, but then began to struggle after that. St. Mary’s did a very nice job throwing multiple defenders at him, particularly the very pesky Wayne Hunter and the very agile Diamon Simpson, who did a great job hedging on the perimeter and denying Curry open looks. Curry was able to free himself up on a few occasions for pretty decent looks by his standards, but unfortunately missed a couple of shots that he normally would make. He struggled in particular around the basket, not getting much lift around the rim, being forced to throw the ball up high off the glass, and failing to get to the free throw line even once. Although much of this game centered around Curry taking on St. Mary’s entire defense, he did make some excellent passes to teammates showcasing his very nice court vision, but only saw a few of them converted. As is the tendency when watching Davidson play, you often got the feeling that Curry was trying or forced (depending on your perspective) to do a little too much.
After the game Curry had the following to share about his chances of entering this year's draft: “I haven’t thought about that. I tried to put it off until our season was over. I’ll talk to all of the people who are involved and see what happens. I don’t have a time limit or anything like that, but my heart’s still at Davidson."[/url]
This was a strong showing for Patrick Mills, particularly the fact that he was able to show better distributing skills than we’d seem from him all season. Mills does not play the point for St. Mary’s full time, and is averaging just under 4 assists per game compared with nearly 3 turnovers. Mills did a good job of driving and dishing as well as finding the open man rolling to the basket on pick and roll plays. His speed and ability to create his own shot is clearly one of his strongest selling points as a prospect, although his shot-selection left quite a bit to be desired in this contest. Mills made some excellent pull-up mid-range jumpers, the main source of his points last night, but was extremely cold from beyond the arc (1-10 3FG). His shot-selection looked exceptionally poor, as he showed absolutely no conscious heaving up tough contested pull-ups very early in the shot-clock, especially when you consider that he’s just shooting 34% from beyond the arc (41% total) on the season. Considering his size, he’s going to have to do a much better job playing at different speeds and getting to the free throw line if he’s to stick in the NBA. Defensively, he did not stand out either. A trip to Madison Square Garden and a good showing once there could really benefit his stock, as most scouts we talked to have him rated in the late first or early second round depending on who is in the draft.
Nice little summary of what Mills has been about this season. His real gift is how easily he can beat you off the dribble and get into the paint at will. We saw Goorjian utilise him perfectly at the Olympics in this role and seeing Kidd, Deron Williams and Paul all slow stepping against him was so ridiculously awesome to watch.
This season though every time I've seen Paddy play he mixes the sublime with the "wtf why?." Takes too many jumpers over players far bigger than him but I believe the pressure of being the only reliable scorer and superstar on a team of proper scrubs is also contributing to this. Encouragingly he is ridiculously similar to what the young Tony Parker was like and I can still remember all the times Pop would sit Parker down entire 4th quarters whenever he was in chuck mode which forced him to become a smarter player to get his minutes.
Hopefully something like this can happen with Mills because in the right situation with the right coach he could really become something. Sort of unlucky that there are so many good PG's in this draft class and guys like Rubio(if he declares) and Brandon Jennings are undoubtedly better than him.
However out of the next tier (Jeff Teague, Stephen Curry,Eric Maynor,Jonny Flynn) I think Paddy on his day is the most spectacular but he's probably also the most erratic in his play too. If the scouts are right and he goes late first then he'll be a steal IMO because he is exactly the type of project player that could develop huge when he's playing with and against better players like he did at the Olympics. Would love to see him at a Dallas, GSW, Philly or Phoenix where he can be at his explosive best night in and night out but I guess whatever team drafts him is my new team tbh.
Not really current NBA and a tad long but I thought it might interest some people
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