Lol at people talking about Millsap as a role player, smh...no wonder there's people begging to have Beasley or Josh Smith back to save us...thank god you're not a gm.
I will reiterate the need for a rim protector in addition to Capela. Millsap is nice, but he is not the player we need, especially at that reportedly astronomical salary he so covets.
And that's ok, but Paul Millsap is not a role player dude, the guy has been the best PF in the Eastern conference in the last 2/3 years, just saying...
[December 28, 2016 - #AskViv - Chris Vivlamore]: Q: When will Splitter begin participating in basketball related activities? Is it realistic to believe that he will have a role with this team this year, being that it’s the last year of his contract and he hasn’t established himself as a mainstay? #AskViv: The latest calf injury, announced Nov. 25, had a recovery timetable of at least six weeks. That means you won’t expect to see Splitter until the first week of January. That’s best case scenario. I would expect a little longer. Splitter has been around the team and doing the off-court work but to my knowledge he has not yet begun on-court contact activities. I actually do expect there to be some kind of role for Splitter once he returns. The Hawks held on to Splitter this summer. There was an option to waive the big man and spread his $8.5 million salary against the salary cap over three seasons. They choose not to do that. (Although, had they known …) Ideally, the Hawks would like to have Splitter as the primary backup to Howard. This would also allow Mike Muscala to play more at power forward and less at center. Q: Any chance we trade Splitter for a younger big? #AskViv: I supposed there is a chance, but I don’t see a trade of Splitter. I’m not sure there is a team that is going to give up a young player for one that has not played this season due to a number of injuries. Spoiler: #Freebird
Malakas, Denver's front office is one of the worst in the Association. But they're not even dumb enough to trade a top ten pick for Millsap without any guarantee he's going to stay there long term.
@justtxyank answering here cause the thread got locked lol Yeah, all good reasons, not disagreeing with this but still, Millsap is a better player, and i would say in any system, our own included.
Is anyone really going to give a 34 year old Millsap $34m per season? Hell f'ing no. We're not, and neither is ANY TEAM that has aspirations of winning something. I don't believe he's expecting that, I believe that's something a team who covets him has spread around as a rumor. I'm sure his agent will start negotiations there. Why on earth would he or his agent even say something like that? If he says it, he's putting himself on an Atlanta team that has 0 motivation for the next few months and playing our his contract, and then NOT getting $34m from a top 5-6 team. If he shuts up about it, then he can get traded and also wait it out till the summer and then NOT get $34m from a good team.
The point here is there's probably too much money in the table for Millsap not to become a free agent this summer. Which essentially makes him an expiring context sms limits his trade market and trade value. Nobody is going to give up substantial assets for a rental unless they are clearing salary in the process and/or they know they can re-sign him.
At the end of the day we need another high quality player. I've always desired another good ball handler/play maker next to harden [some type of SF] but that's few and far between. Rockets are playing well, who knows we might be contenders but I'm still doubtful rockets can contend against the spurs, warriors or cavs without landing another star like player. I love millsap but not sure how he fits in with us considering Ryan Anderson gels perfectly with our system. Unless millsap will come off the bench and slot in at C at times [perhaps he will start at C, he's undersized but ironically still a better rebounder and defender then every big man we have]. Also he's a one year rental but it may be good for us, so we can have cap space to either sign him back or sign another good free agent Then we gotta give a good player away like Ariza or Bev. Hard to say if it's worth losing our depth in a specific position. We have no solid back up SF other then the legend brewer
Fine, but the point I'm making is: no one but desperate bottom feeders with poor management will even want to re-sign him at $34m. Of course he wants to. He is an excellent player, but he's not a franchise player and even in THIS market, he's not $34m at age 34. If he were even 28 years old, some good teams would consider it. So I'm saying the $34m thing is total BS. He is not floating that idea around, it's a career killer for him. The rental trades could happen. Cavs just gave up a nice future first rounder and expirings for Korver, who may very well end up a rental or at best a long term declining 3pt specialist. Worth it for the Cavs given where they are, but Korver would not turn any of the second tier contenders into significantly bigger threats. The Raptors will consider it imo. They make an offer on the basis it's a rental, and if it works out that he is actually reasonable with contract demands they re-sign him. If it is true that he wants $34m, no one will offer anything worthwhile and Atlanta will trade him for the best deal, they have made the situation toxic already by how publicly they're going about this.
I look forward to watching our team dismantle the likes of a Spurs or GSW team. Yet, building upon what we have will only make us stronger. Capela is someone we need. Yet, when we look to our bench having rim protection, more so than what we do, will help us as we go deep into a series with these teams. It depends on who we can get & at at what price.
When you say rim protection, are you referring to weakside shotblocking or actual rim protection? If we're talking about actual rim protection, there are shot blockers and non shot blockers who are excellent at protecting the rim. Millsap is an excellent rim protector, but he is not a good shot blocker. He does it with a combination of tight defense, quick rotation, steals inside, some blocks and some charges. But make no mistake about it, if you have Millsap inside teams will not find it easy to score. If we had very good defense at the 4 btw, Capela would look far better. More importantly, Capela is already good at defense and looks like he is not done improving. A Capela/Millsap duo inside would SHUT people down on an elite level. Teams would lose their minds trying to get decent shots at the rim, while at the same time on switches and on stretch forwards, these guys can make life very very difficult for their opponents. The problem, of course, is that you are then losing Anderson's spacing. The bigger problem is, there are no more than 1 or 2 players on planet earth that can space the floor like Anderson and defend like Millsap. Oddly, we have a player that could develop into a Millsap (Harrell) minus the rebounding but with better range and that's very interesting to me. I have no doubt Harrell can shoot at a Breweresque clip already and I think we'll see more of that. I see Capela as a perfect compliment to Harrell because Capela is an elite rebounder and Harrell is never going to be more than solid in that area. These two are quick as well, I would love to see teams try to run PnR against us with these two getting low on the perimeter and lurking in the paint. I can see them complimenting each other very well in a year or so, but I feel like they need more experience, more losses, more playoffs and a bit more range from Harrell before it can work. We could have a very dynamic duo for the future there and Anderson might be just the guy to be our starter till we transition to the future. I think we should see what our team looks like with this more experienced Harrell off the bench and Capela healthy before spending big money on an expensive aging rim protector or giving up serious assets for Noel.
I think Paul would be huge for us now, but long term?? He's turning 32 next month... I know he's a skill guy mostly, but it's not very Morey like to pay for a guy who's CLEARLY going to decline by the end of his contract. If you're trading for him, it's because you plan to resign him, and I'm assuming he wants 3-4 years. That's a lot of jamba, and a commitment to a guy who will be on the other side of 30 by the time his contract is up. He's already slightly undersized, age will not make him better at this point...
The only thing undersized about Millsap is his height. That man has thunder thighs and tree trunk legs and plenty of reach. Very simply, he's a great player. I have no problem seeing somebody give him 3/80-90 or even 4/100. Anderson just got 4/80. And Millsap is clearly the superior player if not as good a fit as Anderson. I'm still all in on acquiring Millsap. He's one of my favorite players. Love his fight and attitude combined with his skills. And I'd give up Anderson for him (although I doubt Morey would). I personally believe Wiltjer can give us 90-95% of what Anderson gives us and I think Millsap would be a monster small ball 5 in our system. Would love to see Millsap and Draymond battle in a 7-game series. That would be epic.
Could he start and play significant minutes at center a la Draymond Green, and what is his standing reach compared to Draymond?
