The Atlanta Hawks have been a perennial playoff team in the NBA over the past few years. While they haven’t been able to make it as deep as they’d like every postseason, the Hawks are still a quality team capable of beating anyone and they have been for a while now. Their 33-26 record this year has them in prime playoff position again as the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference.
While the offseason addition of center and Atlanta native Dwight Howard has helped the Hawks become a more solid presence in the lane on both ends of the court, their identity continues to come from All-Star forward and franchise centerpiece Paul Millsap. Though he doesn’t provide the defensive prowess Howard does, Millsap’s ability to serve as a swiss-army knife is what keeps this team afloat.
With the Hawks focused on this season and looking to make a playoff run and catch people by surprise, the front office must begin looking ahead towards the offseason when Millsap is slated to hit unrestricted free agency. There had already been rumors swirling about the Hawks looking to unload the Louisiana Tech product before the trade deadline though those rumblings were shot down by both Millsap and the Atlanta front office. In fact, in a recent sit down with Adrian Wojnarowski of the Vertical, Hawks General Manager Wes Wilcox said inking Millsap to a deal will be number one on the team’s to-do list this summer:
“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.”
Moving forward, Millsap looks to carry the Hawks into the playoffs and, hopefully for them, beyond. While re-signing Millsap would be the logical move with him being your key cog, his ceiling has certainly been hit. At 32, Paul Millsap has fulfilled his potential and at this point, you know what to expect from the veteran.
Millsap is a fine piece to hold onto moving forward but the question remains: can the combo forward be the best player on a championship roster? I think it’s fair to say that in today’s game you need to at least have a couple stars to be considered a legit title threat so even if Millsap ends up sticking around, the Atlanta front office should do everything in their power to surround him with more weapons.
Also, we shouldn’t forget that last season the Hawks seemed hellbent on getting an extension done with center Al Horford, something we know didn’t come to fruition as he ended up taking his talents to Boston. Even though Millsap looks like a safe bet to stay in Atlanta for the future, his status is a storyline to monitor once the offseason unfolds.
