NBA Insider Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer has shared that the Portland Trail Blazers are interested in signing Ex Denver Nuggets free agent Paul Millsap.
The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor has shared on Twitter that the Portland Trail Blazers have interest in ex Denver Nuggets forward Paul Millsap.
Sources: Free agent Paul Millsap is expected to draw interest from the Trail Blazers.
— Kevin O'Connor (@KevinOConnorNBA) November 16, 2020
Millsap turns 36 this season and is well past his prime, but he still offers leadership, tough defense, and shooting. Portland’s bigs got wrecked by AD, a reliable vet like Millsap could help.
Millsap just finished a three-year deal with the Nuggets and is now a free agent at the same time that Nuggets teammates Jerami Grant and Torrey Craig are. The Nuggets also have the maximum extension kicking in of young star Jamal Murray.
It is likely that as a small market team with the potential of reduced income with no fans in arenas, that the Nugget swon’t want to dip into the luxury tax; this would mean that they likely can’t bring Millsap back when the above free agents are considered.
For the Blazers, as O’Connor detailed above, they struggled with Anthony Davis and LeBron James in the playoffs in 2019/20. By bringing in someone with Millsap’s size and experience, they could potentially improve the Blazers’ 27th ranked defense from the 2019/20 season.
Millsap would need to take a significant pay cut, but I think he would likely take the midlevel exception starting at around $9 million a season.
This interest is positive for the Blazers; they need veterans who have size if they want to push for a significant playoff run in the 2020/21 season.