If you look at the back of a basketball card for the 2023-24 season, you might think Patty Mills finally hit the wall. It happens to every lightning-fast guard eventually. The legs go, the lift disappears, and that flick-of-the-wrist release starts hitting the front iron. Honestly, at first glance, the Patty Mills 2023-24 3-point percentage looks like a career-low disaster.
He shot 27.6% from deep across 32 games.
For a guy who built a borderline Hall of Fame international career and a decade-long NBA tenure on being a "dead-eye" shooter, that number is jarring. We are talking about a player who has spent most of his life hovering around the 39% or 40% mark. To see it dip into the 20s feels like a glitch in the Matrix. But if you actually watched those games—the sporadic minutes in Atlanta and the desperation heaving in Miami—you’d know that 27.6% is a bit of a lie.
Breaking Down the Patty Mills 2023-24 3-point percentage
Basketball is all about rhythm. Patty Mills is the poster child for "rhythm players." In San Antonio, Popovich had him on a leash that allowed him to run off three screens, catch, and fire in one fluid motion. In the 2023-24 season, that rhythm was non-existent.
He started the year with the Atlanta Hawks. It was a weird fit from day one. They had Trae Young and Dejounte Murray eating up all the guard minutes, leaving Patty to essentially be a highly-paid cheerleader and locker room mentor. He played only 19 games for Atlanta. In those games, he took only 1.8 threes per game.
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You can’t find your stroke when you’re shooting twice a night after sitting on a cold bench for 40 minutes.
The Atlanta vs. Miami Split
When Patty finally got waived and picked up by the Miami Heat, everyone expected the "Heat Culture" to fix him. Miami loves veteran shooters. They needed spacing. But the numbers didn't magically rebound.
- With Atlanta: He shot 38.2% from three. Wait, what?
- With Miami: He shot 20.8% from three.
This is where the aggregate Patty Mills 2023-24 3-point percentage of 27.6% becomes so confusing. He was actually quite efficient in his tiny role in Atlanta. He made 13 of his 34 attempts there. That’s vintage Patty. The "collapse" happened in Miami, where he was suddenly asked to play 16 minutes a night and handle the ball more than he had in years.
He went 11-for-53 from deep in a Heat jersey. That’s a brutal stretch for anyone, let alone a specialist. But let's be real: moving cities mid-season and trying to learn Erik Spoelstra’s complex offensive triggers at age 35 isn't exactly a recipe for shooting success.
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The Fatigue Factor and Olympic Prep
There is a theory among "Boomers" (Australian National Team) fans that Patty’s NBA shooting percentages in Olympic years are always a bit funky. He’s carrying the weight of a nation on his shoulders. By the time the 2023-24 NBA season was winding down, Patty’s eyes were already partially on Paris 2024.
Nuance matters here. In the 2024 Olympics, just months after that dismal Miami stint, Patty looked like a different human. He was hitting transition threes, pulling up from the logo, and carrying the Australian offense.
It suggests that the Patty Mills 2023-24 3-point percentage wasn't about him losing his ability to shoot. It was about role, usage, and perhaps a lack of "buy-in" for a season where he was moved around like a trade chip.
Why the Percentage Matters for his Legacy
Some critics argue that Patty is now strictly a "FIBA god" who can’t cut it in the modern, high-length NBA. And sure, at 6'0" and 180 pounds, he’s a defensive target. If he isn't hitting threes at a 40% clip, it’s hard to stay on the floor.
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But look at the shot quality. In Miami, because of injuries to Tyler Herro and Terry Rozier, Patty was forced into taking "bail-out" shots at the end of the shot clock. According to NBA tracking data, a huge chunk of his misses were "contested" or "late-clock" heaves. That’s not the same as missing wide-open corner triples in a functional offense.
What's Next for Patty's Jumper?
Patty moved on to the Utah Jazz and then the Clippers for the 2024-25 stretch, and guess what? The shot started falling again. He’s hovered back toward that 35-37% range.
The 2023-24 season was an outlier. A blip. A weird year where a legend got caught in the gears of two teams going in different directions. If you're a scout or a front-office person, you ignore the 27.6% and look at the mechanics. The release is still lightning fast. The footwork is still there.
Actionable Insights for Basketball Fans
- Context is King: Never judge a veteran shooter by a single season's percentage if they played fewer than 40 games. Small sample sizes are essentially "math noise."
- Watch the Split: Patty’s 38% in Atlanta proves he didn't "lose it." He just had a cold month in Miami at the worst possible time.
- Role Definition: Patty is a secondary floor-spacer, not an initiator. When he’s forced to create his own shot (as he was in Miami), his efficiency craters.
Basically, Patty Mills is still one of the best shooters on the planet. He just had a rough commute in 2023. If you're betting on him to hit a couple of triples in a pinch, don't let that 2023-24 stat line scare you off. The "FIBA Patty" version is always bubbling just under the surface, waiting for the right screen and a little bit of daylight.
Check his game logs from the start of the 2024-25 season to see how his volume has shifted compared to the Atlanta-Miami disaster. You'll notice he's back to taking high-quality, "in-pocket" shots rather than the desperate heaves that tanked his numbers a year ago.