Photo Credit: Alan DiazAP

The 2 Australians in the NBA have had very different fortunes in recent weeks. Lets take a look how they have gone.

ANDREW BOGUT

Andrew Bogut is yet to return from his ongoing ankle injury. There have been rumours all season as to when he will be returning. It has now become clear that he will be out for a very large portion of the season.

In April, Bogut had surgery to clean out his ankle; we were led to believe that was the only surgery he was still recovering from. Bogut has now revealed that he has also had micro fracture surgery; which involves drilling small holes into bone to spur tissue growth. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that he was told by the Warriors not to talk about the micro fracture surgery.

Bogut has now decided that he has had enough of the rumours and constant speculation. Bogut told The San Francisco Chronicle “We don’t want to fool anybody, anymore. We don’t want to keep creating a little bit of excitement of, ‘Hey, Andrew might be playing Saturday. It might be Monday. He’s back.’”

Bogut has been listed as ‘out indefinitely’, while a comeback date hasn’t been set, Bogut had this to say “I’m not going to say a month, two months or three months, but I definitely think I’ll be back to play again this season.”

I certainly hope Andrew will be back soon. Although his Warriors have been going well without him, they would certainly love to have him back on the court.

PATTY MILLS

Patty Mills has had a mixed bag in his last six outings.

Mills had one of his best games of the season in the blowout win over Denver. Mills was on the court for 20 minutes and drained two 3 pointers and finished with 10 points, 2 assists and 1 rebound. These were great stats against Denver’s awesome back court combination of Ty Lawson and Andre Iguodala.

San Antonio’s loss to the L.A Clippers was a disappointing game for Mills. He had 2 field goal attempts, both from 3 point land, but neither were successful. Mills played 10 minutes but was unable to register any points, rebounds or assists.

It was another disappointing match against Indiana. Mills played 5 minutes and managed 1 steal but also 1 turnover.

In the double over time win in Toronto, Mills again played 5 minutes. It was a highly productive 5 minutes for Mills. He pulled down 3 rebounds, a season high, and scored 3 points, 1 assist, 1 steal and blocked 1 shot.

Mills’ game time shot up to 20 minutes against Washington. Mills managed a new season high in rebounds with 5, including 1 on the offensive end. He also hit two 3 pointers and finished with 8 points and 2 assists.

With Spurs coach Gregg Popovich controversially resting Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker and Danny Green against the Heat, Mills got his second start of the season. David Stern may not have been happy but Mills enjoyed his most minutes of the season. Mills started at the point guard position and played 24 solid minutes. Mills had seven 3 point attempts but only managed to sink 1 of them. He finished with 7 points, 2 steals, 2 assists and 1 rebound. Although his team eventually went down 100-105, it was great to see Mills get quality minutes in the crunch time. With just over 2 minutes remaining Mills dished out a crucial assist to Gary Neal for 3, putting San Antonio up 98-93.

One of the real positives for Mills is that he is only averaging just over 1 turnover per game. This shows that he can handle the ball well and is a good back up if their are any injuries at the point or shooting guard positions.