The Nets agreed to sign free agent guard Patty Mills to a two-year, $12M contract, agent Steven Heumann tells Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).
The deal will feature a second-year player option, according to Wojnarowski. Given Brooklyn’s cap situation, the team will complete the signing using the taxpayer version of the mid-level exception. As we outlined earlier Tuesday, a two-year deal worth the full taxpayer’s MLE is worth about $12.07M.
Mills, who will turn 33 next Wednesday, was one of the few players in the NBA who spent the last decade with the same team, making his Spurs debut way back in 2011.
He has been a reliable and consistent bench contributor for San Antonio during that stretch, knocking down 38.9% of his three-point attempts and never making fewer than 34.1% in a single season. In 2020-21, Mills averaged 10.8 PPG and 2.4 APG on .412/.375/.910 shooting in 68 games (24.8 MPG).
The Spurs have been shifting more into rebuilding mode within the last couple years, so it made sense for Mills to seek out a contract with a contender. He was a popular target on the free agent market, with the Lakers and Warriors among the other teams believed to be pursuing him.
The Nets’ willingness to use their full taxpayer mid-level on the veteran guard reflects how much they like him, as the deal will cost the team exponentially more in cap penalties than the $5.89M Mills will earn in 2021-22. Bobby Marks of ESPN tweets that the signing will increase Brooklyn’s projected tax bill from $92.6M to $121.8M.
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