The Hawks have been a franchise seemingly on the cusp of a tear-down and rebuild for almost three years now, as a team occupying the space of a team good enough to win a playoff series, but not a real contender.
When the Hawks dealt Kyle Korver a month and a half ago, many around the league momentarily assumed that was the signal that the long anticipated tear-down was coming and Paul Millsap was next to be dealt.
Teams were quickly re-buffed as the Hawks seemed content to ride out the year with Millsap and see what happens.
Now it appears they are all in on re-signing the 32-year-old, Swiss Army Knife power forward, which means signing him to a likely five-year, $200 million extension.
Hawks GM: Re-signing Paul Millsap is a top priority https://t.co/gT5G12tpj6 pic.twitter.com/oc05joGxzQ
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) March 1, 2017
Here is what Hawks General Manger Wes Wilcox told Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports:
“Paul Millsap is absolutely our priority this offseason, in re-signing him with the Atlanta Hawks. We’ve communicated that to Paul, his team, and we feel great about our position there. We also don’t want to hide from the fact that, yeah, we took a long, hard look at it earlier in the season, during a period of time where our team was struggling, and ultimately decided that Paul is far too valuable to us. And through that period of time and that exercise, we made that decision to absolutely keep Paul. And he is certainly our priority.”
The Hawks may be able to get him for less than their max, as no other teams will be able to pay him that kind of money, but even paying him $30 million a season or so until he is 37 is a risky proposition, especially for an A- or B+ NBA player that can’t be the best player on a NBA championship winner.
We’ll see if the Hawks stick to their guns and build their immediate future around Millsap.
