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Striker Paul Millsap, left, of the Denver Nuggets, leads the attack on Thaddeus Young, the Indiana Pacers striker, during a second half of a game. NBA basketball game, Saturday, March 16, 2019 in Denver. The Nuggets won 102-100. (AP Photo / David Zalubowski)ASSOCIATED PRESS
The score was 100-100 with 27.9 seconds remaining. The Nuggets were in possession of the ball, but the center of the stars, Nikola Jokic – who had scored the winner of the match, one of the best players in the NBA – had been expelled a few minutes earlier. who would take the last shot of the team.
The Nuggets had returned from an 18-point deficit with a 15-2 record to end the first half, then from a stingy defensive performance in which they limited the Indiana Pacers to only 15 points in the third quarter. But Denver had trouble performing that night while Jokic was on the bench, and counted 29 points for 100 worst possessions on the offensive when he was out of the court, according to NBA.com. The moment required that someone, in the absence of Jokic, replace his very big shoes.
As time went on to 10 seconds, Jamal Murray started a pick-and-pop with Paul Millsap who, after receiving the pbad and found that Myles Turner had doubled Murray and opened a path, led to the basket. and had finished. with a left-handed lay-up, using his right shoulder to protect the ball from Turner's formidable fencing abilities.
The shot was a moment that distilled and crystallized a reality that had an underlying presence all season, but that increased dramatically in the first month of the month following the All-Star weekend: Paul Millsap became the second major player in the Denver Nuggets after Nikola Jokic.
And although this latest rise in Millsap's performance is precisely what the Nuggets were basing on when the president of basketball operations and his office signed an agreement with the veteran for his $ 30 million contract a year it could also create bigger issues and bigger challenges when it comes to deciding how to approach its contractual situation this summer. At the end of the current season, Millsap will have completed the two guaranteed seasons of its $ 90 million, three-year contract, and Denver will have to decide whether he wants to exercise his option or not. Team for the third and final season of the contract at a price of $ 30 million.
A quick look at Millsap's stats could suggest that the All-Star quad and the second 2015-2015 team have dropped, with NBA.com averaging 17.4 points, 8.3 rebounds and 3, 3 badists in four seasons. with the Atlanta Hawks down to 13.7, 6.9 and 2.2, respectively. But its value to the Nuggets goes well beyond the more visible production measures.
As defensive captain of the Nuggets, Millsap has helped Denver rank among the top 10 in the NBA defense after failing in the last 10. According to NBA.com, the Nuggets are elite players for tight games, with the second highest number of wins (26) and the second highest winning percentage (66.7%) in the league. This is largely due to the fact that they have by far the best defense of the league's fourth division, with a defensive rating of 101.0 for this period. For context, the second and third best are the Dallas Mavericks with 104.9 and the Indiana Pacers with 105.3.
Although Millsap is not the only one responsible for Denver's remarkable defensive improvement, it's a dream for head coach Michael Malone. The veteran leadership that Millsap helped motivate his mostly young teammates to engage, improve their communication and focus, and increase their efforts – especially when games are at stake – but showed the example on the team's second is in blocks, in flights and in thrown pitches, and his superb lateral defense has greatly helped to minimize the defensive liabilities of Jokic.
Millsap also played a vital role in the offense. In the last 13 games of Denver (he had missed three previously), Millsap scored the third highest score of the team, averaging 15.3 points per game at 50.4% ( 36.6% on 3 points). Over this period, he has the Nuggets' best net score, the third highest offensive rating and the second best defense, and effectively scores with a third-best percentage of his field goals of 58.6%. He is arguably Denver's most comprehensive two-way player at the moment and, in his last undefeated home game in three games, was the team's top scorer with an average of 23.7 points per game .
With plenty of young developing talents listed in the Nuggets list, there is no guarantee that Millsap will continue to be the second most influential player after Jokic had to stay with the team. during one or more future seasons. In fact, this seems highly unlikely considering not only the fact that he's 34, but also the fact that he has not always held that role for Denver since the beginning of his two seasons . His age and the fact that forwards like rookies Michael Porter Jr. and Jarred Vanderbilt are looking to climb the ladder in depth raise questions as to the duration and compensation of a contract for the Nuggets to keep Millsap in their ranks. for.
Last August, in an article I wrote for Forbes about the flexibility that the Denver team with Millsap would give them during the off-season, I identified three potential consequences for his contractual situation (for a closer look). detailed of these, read the whole article here).
The first of these results is that the Nuggets are exercising their team option and keeping Millsap at the current $ 30 million mark for the upcoming season. In this case, he would become an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2020.
The second possibility is simply not to exercise the option and allow Millsap to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season. The advantage of taking this route, of course, would be the salary relief that the Nuggets would receive by eliminating the Millsap payment from the general ledger.
The third potential solution, and one that could be the most beneficial for all parties involved, would be for Denver to negotiate an agreement with Millsap in which it declines the fairly mbadive team option of $ 30 million and It extends to a reworked contract of longer duration. at a lower rate of pay. This would allow Millsap to secure some long-term job security with a salary that would avoid harming the financial flexibility of the Nuggets.
In a sense, the Nuggets would have an easier decision if the acquisition of Millsap simply did not work. They could take the second choice, decline their option and simply reduce their losses. However, the fact that it is booming potentially increases the need for Denver to find a way to keep it within the group, especially since it intends to play a crucial role if they succeed in the playoffs. Simultaneously, this also gives Millsap and his agent more weight in the negotiations because it is very solid to prove that he still has the game.
In all respects, Millsap and the Nuggets organization abound in mutual respect, trust and admiration, and it seems that all parties are deeply invested in carrying out this current alignment construction project. That being so, a renegotiated agreement that keeps everyone together and luckily seems to be where the smart money is.
But Millsap, who plays as the star player of the Nuggets, thinks his signature will not make his decision easier. And for now, this is a big problem for Denver.
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Striker Paul Millsap, left, of the Denver Nuggets, leads the attack on Thaddeus Young, the Indiana Pacers striker, during a second half of a game. NBA basketball game, Saturday, March 16, 2019 in Denver. The Nuggets won 102-100. (AP Photo / David Zalubowski)ASSOCIATED PRESS
The score was 100-100 with 27.9 seconds remaining. The Nuggets were in possession of the ball, but the center of the stars, Nikola Jokic – who had scored the winner of the match, one of the best players in the NBA – had been expelled a few minutes earlier. who would take the last shot of the team.
The Nuggets had returned from an 18-point deficit with a 15-2 record to end the first half, then from a stingy defensive performance in which they limited the Indiana Pacers to only 15 points in the third quarter. But Denver had trouble performing that night while Jokic was on the bench, and counted 29 points for 100 worst possessions on the offensive when he was out of the court, according to NBA.com. The moment required that someone, in the absence of Jokic, replace his very big shoes.
As time went on to 10 seconds, Jamal Murray started a pick-and-pop with Paul Millsap who, after receiving the pbad and found that Myles Turner had doubled Murray and opened a path, led to the basket. and had finished. with a left-handed lay-up, using his right shoulder to protect the ball from Turner's formidable fencing abilities.
The shot was a moment that distilled and crystallized a reality that had an underlying presence all season, but that increased dramatically in the first month of the month following the All-Star weekend: Paul Millsap became the second major player in the Denver Nuggets after Nikola Jokic.
And although this latest rise in Millsap's performance is precisely what the Nuggets were basing on when the president of basketball operations and his office signed an agreement with the veteran for his $ 30 million contract a year it could also create bigger issues and bigger challenges when it comes to deciding how to approach its contractual situation this summer. At the end of the current season, Millsap will have completed the two guaranteed seasons of its $ 90 million, three-year contract, and Denver will have to decide whether he wants to exercise his option or not. Team for the third and final season of the contract at a price of $ 30 million.
A quick look at Millsap's stats could suggest that the All-Star quad and the second 2015-2015 team have dropped, with NBA.com averaging 17.4 points, 8.3 rebounds and 3, 3 badists in four seasons. with the Atlanta Hawks down to 13.7, 6.9 and 2.2, respectively. But its value to the Nuggets goes well beyond the more visible production measures.
As defensive captain of the Nuggets, Millsap has helped Denver rank among the top 10 in the NBA defense after failing in the last 10. According to NBA.com, the Nuggets are elite players for tight games, with the second highest number of wins (26) and the second highest winning percentage (66.7%) in the league. This is largely due to the fact that they have by far the best defense of the league's fourth division, with a defensive rating of 101.0 for this period. For context, the second and third best are the Dallas Mavericks with 104.9 and the Indiana Pacers with 105.3.
Although Millsap is not the only one responsible for Denver's remarkable defensive improvement, it's a dream for head coach Michael Malone. The veteran leadership that Millsap helped motivate his mostly young teammates to engage, improve their communication and focus, and increase their efforts – especially when games are at stake – but showed the example on the team's second is in blocks, in flights and in thrown pitches, and his superb lateral defense has greatly helped to minimize the defensive liabilities of Jokic.
Millsap also played a vital role in the offense. In the last 13 games of Denver (he had missed three previously), Millsap scored the third highest score of the team, averaging 15.3 points per game at 50.4% ( 36.6% on 3 points). Over this period, he has the Nuggets' best net score, the third highest offensive rating and the second best defense, and effectively scores with a third-best percentage of his field goals of 58.6%. He is arguably Denver's most comprehensive two-way player at the moment and, in his last undefeated home game in three games, was the team's top scorer with an average of 23.7 points per game .
With plenty of young developing talents listed in the Nuggets list, there is no guarantee that Millsap will continue to be the second most influential player after Jokic had to stay with the team. during one or more future seasons. In fact, this seems highly unlikely considering not only the fact that he's 34, but also the fact that he has not always held that role for Denver since the beginning of his two seasons . His age and the fact that forwards like rookies Michael Porter Jr. and Jarred Vanderbilt are looking to climb the ladder in depth raise questions as to the duration and compensation of a contract for the Nuggets to keep Millsap in their ranks. for.
Last August, in an article I wrote for Forbes about the flexibility that the Denver team with Millsap would give them for the off-season, I identified three potential consequences for his contractual situation (for a more detailed review, read the full article here). .
The first of these results is that the Nuggets are exercising their team option and keeping Millsap at the current $ 30 million mark for the upcoming season. In this case, he would become an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2020.
The second possibility is simply not to exercise the option and allow Millsap to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season. The advantage of taking this route, of course, would be the salary relief that the Nuggets would receive by eliminating the Millsap payment from the general ledger.
The third potential solution, and one that could be the most beneficial for all parties involved, would be for Denver to negotiate an agreement with Millsap in which it declines the fairly mbadive team option of $ 30 million and It extends to a reworked contract of longer duration. at a lower rate of pay. This would allow Millsap to secure some long-term job security with a salary that would avoid harming the financial flexibility of the Nuggets.
In a sense, the Nuggets would have an easier decision if the acquisition of Millsap simply did not work. They could take the second choice, decline their option and simply reduce their losses. However, the fact that it is booming potentially increases the need for Denver to find a way to keep it within the group, especially since it intends to play a crucial role if they succeed in the playoffs. Simultaneously, this also gives Millsap and his agent more weight in the negotiations because it is very solid to prove that he still has the game.
In all respects, Millsap and the Nuggets organization abound in mutual respect, trust and admiration, and it seems that all parties are deeply invested in carrying out this current alignment construction project. That being so, a renegotiated agreement that keeps everyone together and luckily seems to be where the smart money is.
But Millsap, who plays as the star player of the Nuggets, thinks his signature will not make his decision easier. And for now, this is a big problem for Denver.
