JULY 2, 1:00pm: Mills will be heading to the Thunder, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who reports (via Twitter) that Oklahoma City will receive unspecified draft compensation as part of the deal.
JULY 2, 8:58am: Mills’ eventual destination remains a mystery for now. Chris Herrington of The Daily Memphian (Twitter link) says his understanding is that the veteran guard won’t be headed to the Grizzlies.
According to Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle, the Rockets traded for Mills in order to acquire an extra second-round draft pick. That’s not quite the same as saying the Nets are sending a single second-rounder to Houston as part of the deal, but that’s our working assumption for now.
JULY 1, 9:02pm: Mills won’t be staying with Houston, according to Iko, who tweets that the veteran guard will be included in an expanded version of the Brooks sign-and-trade and will be rerouted to a different team. It’s not clear at this point if that team will be the Grizzlies or another club.
JULY 1, 5:39pm: The Rockets continue to fill out their previously youth-heavy roster with more seasoned additions early in the 2023 offseason.
Shams Charania and Kelly Iko of The Athletic report (Twitter link) that Houston is putting the finishing touches on a trade for sharpshooting Nets veteran combo guard Patty Mills.
It’s unclear exactly what the Rockets are sending to Brooklyn in the deal, but the Nets aren’t taking back any players, per NetsDaily (Twitter link).
The 6’1″ vet remains a reliable catch-and-shoot option even 14 years into his NBA career. Last season for a playoff-bound Brooklyn team, the 34-year-old Saint Mary’s alum averaged 6.2 PPG on .411/.366/.833 shooting splits, 1.4 APG and 1.1 RPG across 14.2 MPG, his lowest output since the 2012/13 season.
Mills was a huge bench contributor on two NBA Finals-bound Spurs clubs in 2013 and 2014, winning it all in ’14. A deal for him would mark just the latest move clearly made with an eye towards expediting Houston’s timeline.
The Rockets, a team already loaded with recent lottery picks, have also inked experienced free agents Fred VanVleet, Dillon Brooks, and Jock Landale during this free agency period. Houston also signed controversial former Celtics head coach Ime Udoka with an eye toward professionalizing its locker room identity.
Patty Mills is another good veteran player to bring along and to have that voice and championship pedigree on the bench will mean a lot to the youngsters. Patty Mills going to stay in guys like Jalen Green Amen Thompson and Kevin Porter Jr. ear.
Champ patty is washed.
He had fallen out of the Nets’ rotation, but it does seem odd that all four of their top sharpshooters have either been traded away or signed elsewhere in the last 48 hours.
Nice!
Raises the average age of the Houston roster.
Who trading to get him. I can see him after time with SS to finish perhaps and if can help the youngsters.
Like Patty as a veteran presence. Not gonna be expected to carry a heavy load but I bet his impact to Dillon Brooks, KPJ (if he remains with team), Jalen, and Amen is worth the DNPs in the box scores next year.
Mills needs 24 minutes to be effective
Rockets starters
3 guards
2 centers
Green
VanVleet
Porter
Prediction
Porter will be mad bc he has Non-G contract next year?
Porter will be mad he has lost the starting job. Lucas saw Porter at the point. Lucas is gone now. If Udoka does not find a way to get Porter invested he could become a team cancer.
This is all about Udoka. It seems he’s got something to prove. Someone should tell him. He’s there to coach and teach a very young team. Not get his ego waxed. Fertitta must think they can start winning. How about you find a core first.
Jalen-bari-tari-sengun-whitmore-amen there you go the rockets core
Lol exactly. It’s not an ego thing to please Udoka. The rockets have decided their young core and brought in vets to surround it. The last few years ppl clowned the rockets for not having vets. Now that they’ve acquired some, they’re getting clowned for getting the vets. The casuals will always figure out a way to talk crap about what teams do. Let it play out.
He’s a new coach. He can’t possibly know his core. He may know what he wants it to be. But they haven’t played one game. You don’t develop a core a team on paper. Or dream or imagine it. It takes work, grind, mins. Paper analysts is for reading lol.
This team will start winning when they find their core. And a CENTER a PG. are considered staples of a CORE. He’s not winning. And shouldn’t think he can. Plenty talent here to establish a core and team.
I think the confusion is a lot of people think that the rockets made these moves to go “all in” for a championship. That’s not it at all. The rockets are banking on the guys they’ve drafted over the last 3 seasons to grow and continue to get better. That’s who is going to get them there. The guys brought in are to help them with that growth. Teach them how to be professionals, teammates, and winners. People gotta remember that the majority of this team is still younger than a lot of college teams. And based on the way these contracts were structured, they’ll still have a lot of flexibility going forward, which will allow them to adjust based on the growth of their young players. I wasn’t thrilled with the Dillon contract, but that’s starting to look like the new price of a starter/key bench player now and I do like what I think he’ll bring as far as pushing these younger guys in practice and in games. The salary dumping of some of their younger players is a bit strange too, but I’m guessing they either thought they were getting a guy or perhaps still positioning themselves for another move so the jury is still out.
Also people need to remember, Silas’s job was to give these guys minutes and experience and help them become young men. There were so many new and very young guys on the roster and no cap space to have vets (who were willing to accept lesser roles) in the building the last two seasons so the rockets players were getting a lot of game experience, but they weren’t playing under a ton of structured sets offensively and defensively. Part of that is coaching but part of that is when you have that many new guys, all who are essentially kids, there’s only so much you can implement each season. The biggest thing for them the last two seasons was getting minutes and getting used to the NBA and the NBA grind. I think we’ll see a very different team as far as how they play over the next couple years. I still anticipate some growing pains this year, but I think they are in very good shape and loaded with potential going forward.
Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk (-:
VanVleet is a big step in the right direction. I agree this was a super young team. I just see too much written and said about them losing. Even by so called knowledgeable people (writers). Takes time to build a team. Especially when most are 19-20 yr olds. Udoka was a good step. But it seems he feels the pressure to win now. Houston doesn’t support a team unless it’s winning. That’s just Fact ….. IMO you can’t rush rebuilding. It takes yrs to grow up. Then you want chemistry and team ball too. To me this will be the first yr. Where you are establishing your core. And it’s gotta be around VanVleet, Green, Smith, Sengun, Amén, Eason, Cam, Tate.
They are still very young. VanVleet and Brooks are the vets now. But a true leader or leaders hasn’t emerged yet. Green, Smith, Sengun, Amén, Cam are the future. It just seems the future is now. I just don’t agree with that.
Not a Porter guy. They should move him.
I think those “writers” read too much into the “next phase” of the rebuild statement. I think phase one was to trade off the guys who didn’t want to be there anymore and fix their cap situation, accumulate a bunch of draft picks, use those draft picks, and get those guys on the court playing together. Phase 2 isn’t “we have to win a championship now”. It’s, we have the guys to build around now, let’s bring in some free agents that will make this team competitive, both in games and practice, and let’s start getting back on track to becoming a winning team again. Just from everything this team has said and done, there hasn’t been any sense that they are desperate to win. Using their draft picks this year and bringing in FVV and Brooks doesn’t signal “all in desperation”. I don’t know where this national narrative came from but I think we are all aware that typically one person says it, and then every other publication takes what that person says and runs their own version of the same story. I definitely think the rockets want to be better. I think they brought in a coach and a few players that will help challenge these young guys to give max effort and be better. But I think given the age of the guys that they are building around, the realistic expectation is that this team is still a couple years away from making playoff runs. They just need to chip away towards that goal.
Brooks in, KJ Martin out. One step forward, two steps back. Fire the GM and the coach.
To complete the deal, Houston has to send something to the Nets, so I guess it could be the stash the Rockets just got from the Hawks, Alpha Kaba.
Nets get salary relief rockets get a 2nd round pick someone gets Mills
Its absolutely crazy what Elon Musk is doing to twitter, he’s now made it impossible to view twitter without an account.
HoopsRumors, no idea what youre going to do here, maybe cut and paste whatever’s in the tweet into your article so us readers can see the actual link, not just the twitter link? Maybe screenshot images of the tweets then post them?
Herro to Houston, picks to Portland, Dame to Miami?
Figured Patty was not coming here when all was said and done. We got FVV and Brooks. 2 of top targets. Moved a lot of other players. Christopher, Nix, Garuba, KJ, TyTy.
Now we have KPJ, Tari, Jabari, Jalen, Tate, Amen, Cam, FVV, Sengun, Brooks, and our NBA champ Jeff. Plus our Two Way players. Who will start, who will be bench and who will sit till game is a blow out win or loss. Or will more come of any other moves.
This Fantasy that some how Patty Mills in his late 30’s will have any affect on KPJ, Jalen Green, Jabari Smith, Sengun, Eason or Bad Boy Brooks is laughable. These kids have dreams of personal glory. They will have no respect for some guy almost twice their age who was a 3rd stringer on a title team when they were in grade school. Add to that his being Australian these kids won’t even talk to him when they don’t have to. Mills has been excellent throughout his career when called upon. But to these kids he might as well be from Mars. Which might be why the Rockets are likely to trade him.
He was no third stringer in SA. Actually a really important guard AND shooter off the bench.
I think he could have a mentoring impact, I agree with you that that’s not a given, though
I looked closer at Mills numbers & you are correct. Mills was 2nd string to an aging Tony Parker and played a hair under 19 minutes a game during the 2014 Title run. Later in his time with them his minutes went up but the point is still the same. He was a back up who never made it to full time minutes even after the team was no longer a contender. His ability to change the culture of the club is limited at best. I thought of him as 3rd string because the teams 2nd unit often ran the point through Diaw instead of Mills. He would have no more mentoring affect on the current club than Shannon Brown had on the 2014 Spurs club. Unless Van Vleet says something to the team like He is in charge when I leave the floor. The coach saying it will not have the same value to the kids.
the
I agree
So ……. he’s going to Grizzlies ????
Nets lost Curry, Harris, Mills. I would think they need shooters ….
Nets haven’t received anything from Pistons yet. I’m assuming it will be a TE. Harris had a 19 mill contract.
Mills would be a good fit in Chicago, if he gets waived.
Don’t be surprised when Patty winds up in San Antonio. The players being shipped will be coming from them.
This sounds like an NBA 2K trade
He’s going to the thunder
I expected more out of the Thunder, and Detroit this off-season, but its not over yet…
Lol….not sure why you expected more out of okc? This exactly what I expected. They’re in ZERO rush.
So with a second round pick and moving Patty to Thunder are they preparing for another big move or something.
Curious is Tate still in mix for Houston. Is even KPJ. I still do not understand the Atlanta deal for draft rights for a player that may not see NBA.
Wish totally understood moves. If another move coming who could we get or be trying.
The report is the rockets had reached a deal with brook Lopez so they unloaded those salaries to make room for it, and then Lopez “blind sided” them and backed out
Hey man you happen to know the source for that? I’ve heard it too but can’t find anywhere that says he agreed with the rockets then backed out, all I see is the rockets offered more money
I found a deleted tweet and some guy on Reddit who claims to be an nba analyst that’s about it. Perhaps it didn’t really go down like that?
I believe it was Jackson gatlin who reported that
Why would he wanna play for that dysfunctional organization ?
The rockets are a joke…win as many games possible…will own your top 5 pick…Brooks and van fleet overpaid !! Their core is all isolation…them and the magic! THE OKC Thunder…were the blueprint, learn and take notes…
Whatever you say bud