Does anyone believe the Atlanta Hawks?
The answer to that question might have been a resounding no roughly one month ago, just after they shipped Kyle Korver to the Cleveland Cavaliers. But their preference not to trade Paul Millsap no longer feels like the most transparent of ploys. We are less than two weeks from the Feb. 23 deadline, and still they maintain keeping him in their party intention, according to ESPN.com’s Marc Stein:
Skepticism about Atlanta’s recent insistence that Paul Millsap is completely off the market has been fairly rampant. The Hawks, however, are adamant that Millsap is staying put in the wake of the Kyle Korver-to-Cleveland deal in early January … whether rival teams believe them or not. Atlanta began sounding out teams about potential Millsap interest at the same time Korver was made available in early January. Then the team abruptly changed course and told Millsap he should plan to play out the season with the team he’s about to rep in his third successive All-Star Game, even if that means Atlanta risks losing the 32-year-old for nothing when Millsap hits free agency in July.
This won’t stop rival general managers from calling the Hawks. Millsap is 32 and doesn’t fit into their grand scheme. While they’ll be able to contend for a top-four playoff seed with him, he’ll command a max contract as a free agent this summer. They cannot justify paying his next deal when the ceiling on their current nucleus is capped at a second-round playoff exit.
Atlanta can always re-sign Millsap and then figure out the rest later. But it runs the risks of seeing his trade value plummet in that scenario.
Even now, while he remains a flight risk, they should still be able to get two, if not all three, of cap space, prospects and future first-round picks. And should they field an offer that satisfies most of those requirements before Feb. 23, they’ll at least have to seriously consider it, no matter what they’ve told Millsap.
