Yea!

he is a great low post threat with nice mid range and muscle down low. a faster more athletic, bigger boozer. He is the perfect nelson center but would be a better fit at the 4. Imagine this.
Monta
Maggs/Buike
JAx/Randolph
Griffen/Wright
Biedrins

   Is this what all the people with no life do? worry about the next years draft before we’ve even played the season and got our draft position? :>)
    I don’t want to even know their names till they are signed and trained to be NBA ready. Might as well just call them skinny young boy 1, raw rook 2, lots of bullshit potential 3, big,tall,clumsy guy 4, etc.

from what i’ve seen in the olympics rubio hasn’t developed enough offensive weapons. he’s a great passer, but other then that i havent seen any desire to score from him at all. this link s a pretty solid article by tim kawakami.

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/kawakami/2008/08/18/the-ricky-rubio-hoops-experience-hes-snazzy-but-has-a-long-way-to-go/

James Harden

Check the sig.

Anyways I would want Jennings next. I am not sold on Rubio yet, his athleticism and explosiveness and shooting range are very questionable right now. His vision and IQ however is astounding.

Check this out here’s Austriala’s highlights against team USA. Serval of them are Mills. At the 30 sec mark you can see him blow by Kidd and on the next highlight zoom around LeBron. At the 3:25 mark he does a Baron esque dripple jabb step into a fade away jumper on Deron Williams. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5zfDNT4A8Y&feature=related

Here a pre-Olympic Aussie profile of him: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tRLRvWUtI4

The draftexpress.com profile is here: http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Patrick-Mills-1362/
"Mills, 6-0 , Freshman, Point Guard, St. Mary’s 15.5 points, 2.1 rebounds, 4.1 assists, 2.4 turnovers, 44% FG, 34% 3P, 92% FT

Basketball Australia – Jonathan Givony

Somewhat lost in the sea of outstanding performances in this excellent class of NCAA freshman has been the play of St. Mary’s point guard Patrick Mills. The Australian teenager has led his team to a top 25 AP poll ranking, producing at a high rate and showing terrific poise and maturity in the process. Having spent three years at the world renowned Australian Institute of Sports, Mills has terrific fundamentals that are helping him make the transition to college basketball much easier.

Mills is a small and skinny point guard with long arms and good athletic ability. He is very fast in the open floor, but is not very capable of finishing above the rim. Mills relies on his outstanding skill-set and natural basketball instincts to get the job done, and is doing so incredibly well so far early on in the season, especially when considering his age

Mills’ best source of production at the moment comes from his terrific stroke from the perimeter. He has excellent shooting mechanics, with NBA plus range on his jumper, and is able to elevate nicely off the floor to create separation and get his shot off. He creates shots for himself in the mid-range area as well, and has no problem pulling up off the dribble if given just a glimpse of daylight. In an early season game we took in pitting St. Mary’s against Oregon, Mills showed his credentials as both an outstanding shooter and scorer by knocking down back to back to back 3-pointers on consecutive possessions, all in pull-up fashion, and all from NBA range. It was an impressive scoring barrage to say the least.

As a point guard, Mills looks very natural with the ball in his hands, clearly possessing natural leadership skills as well as the aggressive mentality needed to want to be a go-to guy for his team. He’s an unselfish player, looking very good making the simple pass to cutters going to the rim, or a post-entry lob to his talented big men (Omar Samhan and Diamon Simpson), and being a very quick decision maker, particularly in transition. He does a very good job pushing the ball up the floor, which is exactly the way St. Mary’s wants to play from what we can tell early on. He’s extremely clever for a player his age, already showing the ability to bait referees into making calls and the fortitude to take a team on his back when they need him to.

On the downside, he seems to have a tendency to hold the ball a little too much at times in the half-court, and at times will display questionable shot-selection. We must keep in mind that we’re talking about a freshman point guard here, meaning he should improve on these things as he gains more experience.

As a slasher, Mills can get to the rim using either hand, but clearly looks more comfortable looking for shots outside of the paint if he has the option to do so. Part of that has to do with his below average size, part with his struggles finishing at the rim (strength related), and partially due to the fact that he’s just not always strong enough to create separation from his defenders and beat the opposing big men rotating over before he reaches the basket.

Defensively, Mills does a very good job despite his lack of size and bulk. His outstanding wingspan helps him out greatly in this area, as does the toughness and tenacity he brings to the floor. He is willing to step in and take a charge when needed, and really does an excellent job getting in the passing lanes to come up with steals—looking very instinctive in the process.

All in all, Mills does not look like a prototypical early-entry type point guard, but he does have all the makings of an outstanding college player. To give himself a chance to really emerge as a draftable prospect by the time he’s done at St. Mary’s, he must endear himself to NBA executives through production and wins, rather than relying on his upside or natural physical tools. He’s a player to keep an eye on both in the WCC as well as internationally playing with the Australian National Team—which he already joined and made an excellent impact for this summer in an important Olympic Qualifying tournament against New Zealand."

I was quite impressed with how Mills played against Team USA. Plus he’s playing in our own back yard over at St. Mary’s. No doubt I’m going to trek over there to see him school the WCC this season.