Mills shows new mindset
Patty Mills is off to a good start in his bid to become a more aggressive scorer this season.
Recording 20 minutes off the bench, Mills posted a team-high 24 points in the Spurs’ 121-108 loss to Oklahoma City in the preseason opener Saturday night.
“To keep that mindset throughout the course of a season is going to be the task at hand,” Mills said. “It was definitely good for me to get out and stretch it out.”
In averaging a career-best 11.6 points per game last season, Mills took a career-high 9.1 shots per contest. He was 9 of 16 against the Thunder, including 4 of 7 from 3-point range.
The 32-year-old guard also scored from mid-range and attacked the rim in a performance reminiscent of his play for the Australian national team.
At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janiero, Mills averaged 21.3 points and took 16 shots per game.
Mills said at the start of training camp he wants his play to be more like the approach he uses for international basketball competition.
“My mindset when I am aggressive is there tends to be more of a variety in my package,” he said Saturday. “And that’s prob
ably the biggest change I would say from the national team to the Spurs. It starts with the mindset, and then everything else starts to open up. It’s not just living and dying by the 3-point ball.
“Aggressive mindset, getting into the paint, making plays.”
Aldridge fires away from deep in opener
Mills wasn’t the only player out to make good on a preseason promise Saturday night. LaMarcus Aldridge, who has vowed to take more 3-pointers, took 10 shots from beyond the arc against the Thunder.
Had it been a regular-season game, it would have been an official career high for the 15thyear big man, who connected on three of his long-distance shots en route to 14 points.
“And he probably passed up another 10 of them as well,” Mills said.
With Aldridge firing away, the Spurs finished with 38 3-point attempts against Oklahoma City. The Spurs averaged 28.5 3-point attempts per game last season to finish 28th in the NBA.
“That’s the difference in style that we are trying to play and essentially keep up with everyone else,” Mills said. “Huge adjustment for (Aldridge). For him to be open-minded enough to understand that, it’s going to help our team is obviously huge as well. And he has the ability to
make a ton as well.”
Relaxed attire look fine fit for Popovich
Not surprisingly, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich is a big fan of the NBA’s decision to relax the rules for coaching attire this season.
Suit jackets or sport coats will not be required during the regular season, which was also the case during the restart games and postseason contests this past summer at the bubble in Orlan
do, Fla.
But according to a memo the league sent to coaches last week that was obtained by the Associated Press, coaches must still wear “business attire ... dress shirts, pants, socks and shoes.” There was no mention of ties.
An exception will be made for polo shirts as long as they are NBA-licensed and the head coach and all assistant coaches wear the same shirt, the AP reported.
“It sure makes it easier to travel, that’s for sure,” Popovich
said of the new dress code. “Not worrying about a belt and a tie, or shoes and a belt matching, going back and forth to the dry cleaner, packing hang-up bags and making sure everything is not wrinkled. It’s really unnecessary, in my opinion.
“This is natural. We have enough to think about, worry about than being a fashion show.”