While there are still a few significant NBA free agents still deciding on their futures, most of the moves that will come out over the next week are smaller deals as teams look to add depth and fill out rotations.
Few role players had more teams vying for them this summer than Patty Mills, as the sharpshooting Australian guard was departing San Antonio for a role on a contender, and just about every top team was linked to him in recent days. The Lakers, Warriors, and Nets interest were all well known, with others surely checking in on whether they could make a run at the former NBA champion who is a career 38.8 percent three-point shooter.
In the end, Mills chose to go East and join the Nets on a 2-year, $12 million deal that will take up the taxpayer mid-level in Brooklyn and provide them with the backup scoring guard they were about to lose with Spencer Dinwiddie on his way out.
Free agent G Patty Mills has agreed to a two-year, $12M deal with the Brooklyn Nets, his agent Steven Heumann of @CAA_Basketball tells ESPN. Deal includes a player option.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) August 3, 2021
It’s a really good get for the Nets as it all but rounds out a very good guard rotation and gives them a significant upgrade over what they had a year ago taking up significant minutes when Kyrie Irving and James Harden were injured. The hope, of course, is that Mills is playing a smaller reserve role, but he is terrific insurance that can take on a much bigger minutes load should one of their stars be out.
For the other teams that were in the Mills hunt, they have to shift gears and figure out someone else to spend their $5.9 million taxpayer mid-level on, with no one on the market quite as appealing for teams wanting shooting and secondary ball-handling as Mills.