Phoenix Suns: 3 Free Agent Targets to Avoid Bringing Aboard

Phoenix Suns Free Agent Target to Avoid: Paul Millsap

Paul Millsap averaged just 20.8 minutes while scoring 9.0 points per game last year with the Denver Nuggets, both coming as his lowest totals in each category since the 2007-08 season. His best days lie far beyond him, but even if Millsap were to join the Suns as tool to wield off the bench, his presence poises to hurt the team, rather than elevate it.

Last year, Millsap shot only 34.3 percent from outside, nearly 10 percentage points down from his clip during the year prior. But even despite these lowly shooting numbers, he still took more 3-point attempts per game than the year before. For a team which prided itself on its efficiency last year, hearing those numbers spoken aloud sounds like nails on a chalkboard.

With his shot selection, Millsap also looks committed to reclaiming his pedestal as a star NBA player, but struggling to do so nonetheless. In dong this, Millsap embodies the exact player the Suns need to stay away from.

As a strong, dead-eye shooting forward, Jae Crowder already offers what Millsap might bring to the table even if he were to return to his All-Star form. So essentially, no immediate need for him exist with Crowder already satisfying the team as a solid three-and-D guy, also under contract for the foreseeable future.

Additionally, if Millsap were to try and slide up to the small forward position, he might try and impose his will on the team, and take some minutes away from Mikal Bridges. That sounds like a nightmare given Bridges’s young age, and large appetite for minutes to fuel his development.