Paul Millsaps “Show Me Now” Contract

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The NBA is at a very exciting time in its history, players are as athletic as they have ever been, advanced metrics are driving teams personnel decisions and the new collective bargaining agreement has allowed teams to create more financial flexibility for themselves. In this day and age you may have to overpay guys short-term but that’s a good thing because if you have questions to how a certain player fits your basketball team you don’t need to break the bank and mortgage off the future right away. You can hand out what I like to call a “show me now contract” where you pay a player a desired amount for a short amount of time and if he produces then you would be more inclined as an organization to invest in that player beyond the initial deal.

The perfect example of this would be Atlanta Hawks all-star forward Paul Millsap, last year the former 2nd round pick signed a deal worth 2-years/$19 million. This is the type of deal that works out for both parties, Millsap gets short-term money at $9.5 million per year and the Hawks get a 2-year sample size to see how Millsap fits into their team. So far its worked out quite nicely as Millsap made his 1st all-star team and averaged 17.9 points, 8.5 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.7 steals per game last season. He also shot a career high 2.9 field goal attempts from the 3-point line and shot 35.8% while doing it so based off his earlier sample size from beyond the arc you could also call his percentage a legitimate career high. Millsap has more range then anyone anticipated and that makes him valuable to the Hawks on the court because in this day and age you need floor spacing which means that your ability or inability to shoot from the perimeter as a team will become your floor spacing.

Millsap prior to last year was the 2nd option on a decent Utah Jazz team along with Hornets center Al Jefferson that just missed the playoffs at 43-39. Under the old collective bargaining agreement a 27-year old power forward with some upside and his best basketball ahead of him would have got a longer deal and more money. Under the new CBA you can hold off on long-term commitment before you make that guy a cornerstone of your franchise. If teams were looking for any type of way to pay a guy who is in his mid to late 20’s that still has room for growth then I would take a look at what the Hawks did with Millsap last year because they payed him what he wanted and still managed to maintain cap flexibility long-term as they are 15.1 million dollars under the cap this off-season. Atlanta isn’t incredibly high on top-tier free agents list of teams but with a guy like Millsap, perennial all-star Al Horford and a solid point guard in Jeff Teague they have pieces in place to build around which should attract some solid rotation players along the way this free agency.

Millsap is in the last year of that 2-year deal this upcoming season and when he is a free agent again next year he will be on the right side of 30-years old and the Hawks organization will have to make a decision. He’s been in the league for 8 years but has really been a starter for 5 of them, he has shown that he can do a lot of really positive things on the floor and it wouldn’t be a bad idea to lock him up for 3-4 years if he proves that he can play at an all-star level again this year. Either way for B level talent free agent signings I think looking at the deal the Hawks did with Paul Millsap is the way to go.