The All-Star Case For Paul Millsap
By Adam McGee
As the Atlanta Hawks continue to stun the league with their blazing run of form and exciting brand of basketball, it gets harder and harder to decide who should get to represent the team in next month’s All-Star game. One man who should almost be assured of his place, though, is Paul Millsap.
There’s a legitimate case building up to suggest that Atlanta’s incredible season should be rewarded by the coaches around the NBA with multiple representatives at All-Star Weekend.
With Mike Budenholzer and his assistants already announced as the coaching staff for the East thanks to their conference-best record, and Kyle Korver heading to New York for the three-point contest, there’s still a realistic case for as many as four Hawks to make the main game itself.
Korver should generate plenty of interest among the NBA’s coaching fraternity as he continues to track towards a historic 50-50-90 season, with his shooting numbers showing no sign of dropping off soon either.
Al Horford has returned from a torn pectoral muscle that cruelly robbed us of the chance to see more of this Hawks team last season, and although it took him some time to find his feet, he has now clearly re-established himself as the driving force and leader of this team on both ends of the floor.
Jeff Teague seems like a certainty to get a call to be a backup guard spot following the selection of both John Wall and Kyle Lowry as starters. Teague is having a career season, showing greater control, intelligence and poise than ever before, with a skill-set that still seems to be improving.
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Then there’s Millsap. The 29-year-old was almost the league’s perennial forgotten man during his time in the Western Conference with the Utah Jazz. Quite simply, along with Al Jefferson, Millsap never quite got the plaudits he deserved for the numbers he’d put in on a nightly basis against the West’s powerhouse forwards.
Since moving East that has changed though. After signing on a two-year, $19 million bargain deal with the Hawks last summer, Millsap has taken on more than he has at any previous stage of his pro career.
The timing of Horford’s injury meant Millsap had to step up into the alpha-dog leadership role to help guide a young roster through the storm, and he did so with aplomb. The Hawks may have spent much of the second half of last season shorthanded, but Millsap ensured they wouldn’t be irrelevant.
Without arguably their best player, the Hawks dragged themselves into the playoffs, before pushing the top-seeded Indiana Pacers to their limit in a seven-game series.
From what’s been on evidence this season, that just left the Hawks’ squad hungry for more too. What makes Millsap special is his ability to do a little bit of everything. Only two players in the league are currently averaging over 15 points, 8.0 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 0.9 blocks on a nightly basis: Millsap and Anthony Davis.
Does Davis have the ability to stretch the floor and shoot three-pointers at a respectable 35 percent though too? No, for the moment that’s all Paul Millsap.
That average is only likely to go up too, as having struggled with his shot in November, the Louisiana native’s last two months have seen him make threes at a clip of 36.4 and 37.5 percent respectively.
All of this contributes to the increased recognition Millsap is now getting. For example, he’s a nominee for the East’s January Player of the Month.
When he got selected last season it felt as if there was nobody who had earned their spot at the All-Star game quite like Millsap had. As an undersized power forward, Millsap has had to rely on his skill and intelligence to succeed in the NBA, and luckily for him he’s got both in abundance.
According to Chris Vivlamore of the AJC, Millsap finished 10th in the East’s frontcourt All-Star fan voting as the Hawks’ leading vote getter, while NBA.com’s Shaun Powell describes Millsap as “a player’s player and Atlanta’s most consistent guy.”
It’s up to the coaches now, but it’s clear Paul Millsap has earned his shot.