Australian basketball stars Joe Ingles (Utah Jazz) and Patty Mills (San Antonio Spurs) are set to earn hefty pay cheques this July when they become unrestricted free agents. Both Ingles and Mills are playing critical roles for their respective franchises in the ongoing NBA Playoffs 2017.

While Ingles has been helping out the Jazz with his perimeter defence, three-point shooting and high IQ playmaking, Mills has slowly transitioned into San Antonio's No. 1 point guard, often outshining the aging Tony Parker. During Utah's 105-98 Game 4 victory over Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday, Ingles finished with an impressive tally of 8 points, 6 rebounds, 11 assists, 2 steals and a block besides playing lockdown defence. Mills, on the other hand, is one of the candidates to win the Sixth Man of the Year award for his regular-season tally of 9.5 points, 3.5 assists and 1.8 rebounds while shooting an elite 41 percent from deep.

Earlier this month, Mills (No. 1) and Ingles (No. 2) topped the list of the best basketball players from Australia and New Zealand in a special report published by ESPN. A little earlier, insider Kevin Pelton predicted that Mills could receive multi-year offers that pay in excess of US$15 million (AU$19.8 million) per season. Though the Spurs would love to retain Mills, rival suitors with the need for a starting point guard could out-bid Gregg Popovich's team.

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"A big one-year contract might be ideal for the Spurs in terms of retaining flexibility. Unfortunately, Mills will surely get multi-year offers from other teams, so realistically San Antonio would probably have to go at least two years. I'd probably be comfortable paying up to $30 million over that span, given how difficult it would be for the Spurs to replace Mills in free agency this summer," Pelton wrote in a report published in March.

Though Ingles is viewed as more of a two-way presence, he finished fourth in the league in three-point shooting (.441) and could attract offers north of US$15 million per season especially after his breakout performances in the ongoing playoffs. According to the Australian Associated Press (AAP), Ingles is set to land a highly lucrative contract this summer after impressing Doc Rivers, coach of the Los Angeles Clippers.

"Ingles will become a free agent at the end of the season when his relatively cheap two-year, $US4.3 million ($AU5.7 million) contract with the Jazz ends. With salaries skyrocketing following the NBA's new $US24 billion ($A32 billion) media rights deal, Ingles will be in line to cash in similar fashion to fellow Boomer Matthew Dellavedova, who signed a four-year $US48.43 million ($A63.79 million) deal with the Milwaukee Bucks last year."

Besides superstars Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry, the likes of Kyle Lowry, Blake Griffin, Chris Paul and Gordon Hayward will also become unrestricted free agents when NBA Free Agency 2017 commences in July. With the NBA salary-cap skyrocketing to approximately US$103 million (AU$136 million), a lot of players are expected to cash-in.