Patty Mills to replace Dante Exum on Australia roster for big series vs. New Zealand

Patty Mills

Starting Saturday, Australia will face New Zealand in a two-game, home-and-home series with the winner (cumulative score) getting an automatic berth to the 2016 Rio Olympics. There's a lot on the line. So when Australian point guard Dante Exum (198-PG-95, agency: Landmark Sports) went down with an ACL tear that will keep him out of the series (and likely the next NBA season), the Boomers reached out to Patrick Mills (183-PG-88, college: St.Mary's, CA, agency: CAA Sports). The Spurs' point guard had begged out of the Olympic qualifier, but when coach Andrej Lemanis reached out with an emergency plea after the Exum injury, Patrick Mills jumped in. The injury he references is off-season shoulder surgery he had after the Spurs won the title in 2014. It took the first couple months of last season for Patrick Mills to find his old groove again but the shoulder still bothered him, and the Spurs asked Patrick Mills to sit out the series. Which is what he had planned to do. Patrick Mills is the best available point guard the Australians could get (you can argue he's an upgrade over Exum, he certainly is on the offensive end), and he's played internationally for the team and coach before, so it's not like he has to learn a new system. The downside is he was not the point guard through the team's four tune-up games, he's coming in cold to a huge series. That said, Australia has real talent with the Warriors' Andrew Bogut (213-C-84, college: Utah, agency: Relativity Sports) and the Cavaliers Matthew Dellavedova (193-G-90, college: St.Mary's, CA, agency: BDA Sports) on the roster as well (plus some well-seasoned international players).
Courtesy of: nbcsports.com