Atlanta Hawks: Can Paul Millsap Be A Returning All-Star?
By Adam McGee
This year’s Atlanta Hawks team stands out as being a little bit unusual within the current NBA landscape. They hold the distinction of being a really good team, without having a dominant player.
From night to night, any one of a number of Hawks’ players could be the team’s leading contributor, and in some ways that leaves people to underrate them. Having been an All-Star last season, Paul Millsap is giving himself the chance to do so again though.
Much like he was last year, Millsap could well prove to be an under the radar selection. Although he doesn’t do anything particularly flashy, the 29-year-old does a bit of everything across the box score on a nightly basis.
His ability to score and rebound have long been recognized around the NBA, but his passing, shot blocking, 3-point shooting, and ability to steal are equally significant factors of his game.
Last season, Millsap averaged 17.9 points, 8.5 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.7 steals and 1.1 blocks, all while shooting 35.8 percent with his newly found 3-point touch.
In spite of having a couple of poor games in the early part of this season, the Louisiana native’s numbers are already slowly edging back towards those marks from last year, with some of them eerily close already.
Having not played together as often as expected last season due to injury, many expressed concern over how Millsap and Al Horford would mesh together in the front court. It’s been a case of so far so good for the Hawks though, as Horford’s return doesn’t seem to be detracting from Millsap’s production at all.
Through the opening nine games of the year, Millsap is averaging 16.8 points, 8.4 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 1.9 steals and 0.9 blocks, while his 3-point percentage is at 35.5 percent. Having had a particularly poor start with his 3-point shot and free-throw shooting in particular, expect those numbers to only rise from this point too.
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Millsap will want to push his numbers as far as he can this season too, as after signing with Atlanta on a two-year contract that he has significantly outperformed, he is now in a contract year with an opportunity to get a big increase in salary. As a result, that’s the cause of countless rumors surrounding his future.
Millsap’s mind could have switched to places he’d like to play next season, or to getting bogged down with the trade rumors that are bound to arise for such a talented player being on a cheap, expiring contract, but that’s not really his style.
Softly spoken, and a leader by his actions rather than his words, Millsap’s focus is wholly on making Atlanta as successful a team as possible this year. Millsap spoke to Marc Berman of the New York Post before the Hawks recent games with the Knicks, giving an honest assessment of the situation.
"I’m trying not to think about it, trying to put it as far in the back of my head as possible until the end of the year and see what happens.Anywhere could be an option. But my loyalty right now is in Atlanta. Free agency is free agency. When it happens, I’ll weigh my options and see where I’m at. But I’m happy in Atlanta right now."
If Millsap can keep doing what he’s doing, and help steer Atlanta to an improved playoff seeding this year, there’s little doubt that he would find himself in the All-Star mix again. If that does indeed transpire, then it would make it incredibly difficult for the Hawks to let Paul Millsap walk away next summer too.