Luc Longley expects Patty Mills to be fielding calls from title-chasing NBA teams later this year, adamant the Australian’s time in America isn’t up.<\/p>\n
There are 14 Australians playing in the NBA this season but Olympic bronze medallist and Boomers great Mills – as well as maligned former All-Star and No.1 pick Ben Simmons – aren’t among them.<\/p>\n
NBA champion Mills, now in charge of the University of Hawaii’s men’s basketball program, remains a free agent while the future of 29-year-old Simmons is clouded.<\/p>\n
Five-time Olympian Mills became the first Australian to play 1000 NBA games earlier this year, after debuting in 2009 and winning a championship with San Antonio in 2014.<\/p>\n
The three-point shooter has stayed NBA-ready in Hawaii and Longley, a three-time champion alongside Michael Jordan at the Chicago Bulls, won’t be surprised to see the 37-year-old back in the league soon.<\/p>\n
“For sure they’re both talented, great athletes,” Longley said of Mills and Simmons at Friday’s Amazon Prime NBA season launch in Sydney.<\/p>\n
“If I’m a championship team and, mid-season, need a flame-thrower with some experience and pedigree, I’m signing Patty.<\/p>\n
“For a different recipe someone will want Ben, but I’m sure Patty’s probably pretty sharp.<\/p>\n
“He’s probably laying in the weeds waiting for the right opportunity, waiting to get another ring.<\/p>\n
“That’s how I’d do it if I were Patty.”<\/p>\n
Mills’ long-time Boomers buddy Joe Ingles remains as a veteran presence with Minnesota but there has otherwise been a changing of the guard.<\/p>\n
Josh Giddey and Dyson Daniels both landed $150 million contracts with Chicago and Atlanta in the pre-season while Jock Landale has earned a starting role with new team Memphis.<\/p>\n
Johnny Furphy has turned heads at Indiana while rookies Rocco Zikarsky and Tyrese Proctor will get their chances at the Timberwolves and Cleveland respectively.<\/p>\n
Daniels, the NBA’s most improved player last season, began this campaign with four fouls inside 10 minutes in a quiet performance that earnt the ire of fans.<\/p>\n
But Longley expects him to back up his breakout 2024 campaign.<\/p>\n
“I’d suspect his game’s on the way to another level. I’ve heard and seen how hard he works and his team’s seen that, because they’ve paid him,” he said.<\/p>\n
“He’s got all the pieces; it’s going to be fun to watch him.”<\/p>\n
\u00a0Luc Longley played a key role in Chicago’s golden era. (AP PHOTO)<\/p>\n
And Longley, who has remained humble and understated in his post-playing career, had a message for those Australians now carving out NBA careers.<\/p>\n
“Keep taking the selfies with the the kids; you have a responsibility to the fan base and public to act with grace and engage with them,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It’s easy getting caught up and trapped in being an NBA player.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Keep remembering you’ve got to give back off the court.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Luc Longley expects Patty Mills to be fielding calls from title-chasing NBA teams later this year, adamant the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236961,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-236960","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}