They have been teammates for seven seasons and received an NBA championship collectively in 2014. Now Patty Mills and Kawhi Leonard are along with the Clippers.
Mills arrived right here Saturday by way of commerce from the Utah Jazz together with ahead Drew Eubanks in trade for Mo Bamba, P.J. Tucker, a 2030 second-round draft choose and money concerns.
Like he did when he and Leonard have been members of the San Antonio Spurs’ championship crew, Mills mentioned he comes with a “objective” of fulfilling no matter position is required of him by the Clippers and to do his half to assist them win their first title.
The 36-year-old guard feels lucky to be taking part in with Leonard in that quest.
“Yeah, a few younger bucks again within the day, successful an NBA championship, and clearly having the ability to witness his progress firsthand was actually cool,” Mills mentioned Tuesday on the Clippers’ shootaround forward of their sport in opposition to the Lakers on the Intuit Dome.
“Yeah, it was one thing that you simply achieved in your life that type of bonds you collectively and you’ve got that without end. So, very grateful for my time spent with him. Shut bond with him in San Antonio and clearly shut since then. So, to have the ability to reunite, I assume, a decade afterward a quest for a similar kind of factor may be very thrilling.”
Mills and Eubanks joined a Clippers crew that entered Tuesday sixth within the aggressive Western Convention. That’s removed from the Jazz crew that has the second-worse report within the NBA and is in line for a excessive lottery choose.
With the Clippers in want of an enormous man to permit heart Ivica Zubac to get some relaxation, the 6-foot-10 Eubanks hopes to fill that void. He averaged 5.8 factors and 4.5 rebounds with the Jazz this season.
“Athletic, get out and run the ground, be a lob menace, defend the rim,” Eubanks mentioned about what he expects his position to be. “Get guys like James [Harden] and Kawhi and Norm [Powell], these guys open for threes or get going downhill. End across the rim, be a bodily presence for them. I do know Zu performs numerous minutes, so simply filling within the gaps when he’s not on the market.”
Mills has spent 16 years within the NBA, a 6-foot-2 level guard who has carved out a profitable profession in opposition to the chances. He averaged 4.4 factors in simply 17 video games with the Jazz this season. However over the course of his profession, he‘s averaged 8.8 factors and shot 38.5% from three-point vary.
“It’s again to, once more, the aim,” Mills mentioned. “The aim of taking part in basketball. The aim of competing and competing to win and doing all your half. So that is positively acquainted territory on the search of one thing better. And it’s enjoyable. It’s enjoyable whenever you discover a group and you discover guys which might be prepared to do their half to win a championship, it’s very cool. So hopefully I can convey that right here.”
Mills led his native Australia to its first Olympic males’s basketball medal on the 2020 Video games, and he needed to remind his new fan base the place he’s from.
“That is the half I feel I actually get pleasure from due to perhaps how I look or how I’m perceived by folks over right here [in America] — I’m Indigenous Australian,” Mills mentioned. “And that’s one thing that I take numerous pleasure in … being Indigenous Australian is one thing that I’m actually pleased with and I’m nonetheless sturdy in my identification, even having 16 years within the NBA.
“I feel I’m somebody that may be a minority on the opposite aspect of the world and different nations are capable of look as much as and hopefully be impressed from. So, I get pleasure from that position. I feel it’s part of me and I hope to encourage all these people who hopefully make their goals come true as nicely.”