Should Paul Millsap Be A Target For The Suns?
By Drew Zlogar
Yesterday, Paul Millsap informed the Atlanta Hawks that he has opted out of his player-optioned 3rd year, of his 3 yr/ $60.2 million dollar deal he signed in the offseason in 2015. Being an unrestricted free-agent, Paul Millsap will have many teams knocking on his door this offseason. The Phoenix Suns, with some young promising talent, with enough cap space to sign a max contract to a player will be a team in the mix for him no doubt.
However, the Suns shouldn’t waist their time and money on him.
Paul Millsap is a 32-year-old power forward with career averages of 14.2 ppg, and 7.5 rpg. His four all-star appearances in 11 seasons is pretty impressive, probably the most impressive stat in his career notes, but shouldn’t be a reason the Suns go out and spend a max deal on him. Some can argue that he could be the perfect guy to come in and develop the young guys like Bender and Chriss, however Tyson Chandler has done a fine job. Not to mention, the young guns don’t necessarily need another veteran to be mentored by. Maybe the thing they need most, to see if they sink or swim in the league, is to be fed to the sharks right away, which is what Earl Watson did for the most part during their rookie campaigns.
Paul Millsap will be joining a medley of players that because of the salary cap increases, and deals with players in recent free-agent periods, will be getting overpaid this offseason. Look to Mike Conley’s 5 yr/ $153 million dollar deal in the 2016 offseason as a great example.
Millsap will join potentially be in a group of stars such as Blake Griffin, Kyle Lowry, Gordon Hayward, and Serge Ibaka, to name a few, that all will be vying for a max deal from teams, when in all honesty a case can be made NONE of them are worth that type of money.
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Yes, Paul Millsap has been a solid player his whole career, but his skill set is a ‘what you see is what you get’ kind of deal. And at this point, the young core that the Suns are building from the ground up, a 32-year-old Paul Millsap wouldn’t be a good fit for the ‘down the road’ plan that is in the works right now in Phoenix.
To the team that pays WAY too much for Paul Millsap this offseason, hope for production out of him that will be better than the 13.3 ppg that he has averaged over his career in the postseason since he has been in the league.