Paul Millsap will opt out of the final season of his contract with the Atlanta Hawks and test free agency in July. That much we know. Now, just two months after team owner Tony Ressler said “we are going to make every effort imaginable to keep him,” it appears new Hawks general manager Travis Schlenk may not be willing to cough up the cash to do so.
Paul Millsap’s future with Hawks far from certain as GM says ‘he might get better offers than we can make him’
Atlanta can offer Millsap a five-year max worth $207 million. They must not view the 32-year-old forward as a max player.
Photo by Daniel Shirey/Getty Images
“We are going to make Paul our best offer,” Schlenk said, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Chris Vivlamore. “Will he have better offers? I don’t know. Do we want to keep Paul? Sure. I said last week, if you are building a team with all the things I’ve said, Paul checks all those boxes. He’s a hard-worker. He’s a good guy. He’s high-character. Skilled. He does all that stuff. We’d like to have him. The reality is, he might get better offers than we can make him.”
Millsap was named an All-Star reserve on his way to averaging a career-best 18.1 points, 7.7 rebounds, and nearly four assists per game in Atlanta. He helped lead the Hawks to a 43-39 record, good for fifth place in the Eastern Conference. The versatile forward is coveted by teams across the NBA for his ability to space the floor (.311 on threes), create shots for himself and teammates, and defend multiple positions in the front court.
Millsap was scheduled to make almost $21.5 million in the 2017-18 season. Opting out of that chunk of cash meant one of two things: Either he wants to secure his biggest possible bag, he wants a change of scenery, or he wants both.
Let’s examine the former: The biggest payday.
Players opt-out of contracts to re-sign with the same team every year. That’s why LeBron James and Kevin Durant signed short two-year deals with player options after Year 1: So they could re-sign for the most money possible.
Millsap can sign a four-year max deal with any one of 29 teams for around $153 million. The Hawks own the All-Star forward’s Bird rights and can offer him a massive five-year contract at $207 million. That’s an extra year worth $54 million Millsap would leave on the table if he turned down a max offer from the Hawks.
If the Hawks really wanted to keep Millsap, they could exceed the projected $102 million salary cap to make him a lucrative offer.
But Schlenk didn’t say the team didn’t have the money to re-sign Millsap; he said they’d make him their best offer. By definition, Atlanta’s best possible offer is a five-year max that no team could possibly outbid. By implying another team could make a better offer, the Hawks GM essentially admitted Atlanta won’t max out Millsap.
Maybe the Hawks don’t view Millsap as a max player. After all, he is 32 years old, and a five-year max contract would pay Millsap $47 million at age 36.
Like fine wine, though, the pending free agent’s gotten better with time. Millsap’s developed a reliable three-point shot in his early 30s and has posted career highs in both scoring and assists. It’s entirely possible he’s equally, if not more productive for at least the next two years of his career.
And now for the latter.
The Hawks are light years away from contending for an NBA championship, let alone retaining their standing as the fifth-best team in the East. Millsap was the lone All-Star on that team and could easily abandon ship for a more suitable workplace environment elsewhere (hi, Kevin Durant).
Atlanta’s roster leaves much to be desired.
Dennis Schroder is still a young speed demon learning how to control a game and run a team. Kent Bazemore is a two-way wing who shot sub-35 percent from three in the regular season and below 30 percent in the playoffs. The Hawks traded Kyle Korver to the Cavaliers mid-season. Dwight Howard’s now practicing three-pointers.
The Hawks’ best players of the future, aside from Schroder, are Taurean Prince and Tim Hardaway Jr. At 32 years old, Millsap doesn’t have time to wait for the Hawks to get good. His window of opportunity is right now.
So now what?
At this point in his career, Millsap’s after one of two things: long-term financial flexibility or winning a championship.
The best-case scenario would be the Hawks turning the ship around and competing against the top dogs in the East. Unfortunately, the Atlanta isn’t behind just the Cavaliers — they’re steps short of the Celtics, Raptors, Wizards, and even the young Bucks, too.
I think it makes sense for Millsap to take the hit and sign a four-year deal with a contender as long as it provides him a viable chance at competing for a coveted NBA championship. He’d leave more than $50 million on the table, but if he signs a four-year max, his annual salary floor would be $35 million — a $14 million raise from last year’s payout.
Millsap could reunite with Al Horford in Boston (although Gordon Hayward may have something to say about that). He could replace Chris Bosh with the Miami Heat, head to Indiana to join forces with Paul George (unlikely), or join a talented group of veterans in Chicago (hmmm).
Millsap may be 32 years old, but he proved last season that his gas tank is far from empty. And if the Hawks are neither ready to win nor ready to max him out, the All-Star forward should seek the best possible destination, no matter where it takes him.
See More:
