Paul Millsap Says Hawks ‘Didn’t Want To Make An Offer’ To Him In Free Agency

As yet another Eastern Conference star heads to the West, All-Star forward Paul Millsap, and newest member of the Denver Nuggets made an interesting comment on Monday. Millsap has agreed to a three-year deal with the Nuggets worth $90 million, and it appears the Atlanta Hawks weren’t willing to offer anything.

According to Millsap, the Hawks wanted to go in another direction despite talk of the team supposedly making it a priority to sign the veteran forward, via Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

“It was pretty simple,” Millsap told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Monday. “Denver, they came and they’ve been wanting me for years. They made that known. The presentation that they gave me, it felt comfortable, it felt real. At the end of the day it was going to be the team that I felt most comfortable with and Atlanta. Atlanta decided to go another direction. They didn’t want to make an offer. So it was pretty simple. Denver was the team.”

The once-promising Hawks squad of a few years ago has been completely dismantled. Atlanta used to be among the elite teams in the East with Millsap being part of a core of talented veterans that included Kyle Korver, Jeff Teague, DeMarre Carroll, Joe Johnson, and Al Horford.

Each of those players has moved on, and even Dwight Howard who joined the team in free agency last summer was traded to the Charlotte Hornets. It is evident the Hawks are in rebuilding mode with the team trying to cut any long-term deals with aging players.

As for Millsap’s current situation, the Nuggets are a team on the rise in the Western Conference and were able to improve that much more with the addition of the perennial All-Star. Millsap joins a talented and young roster that includes Will Barton, Kenneth Faried, Gary Harris, Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and Emmanuel Mudiay.