Amid rumours that his team is actively shopping him, three-time all-star forward Paul Millsap says he’d prefer to remain with the Atlanta Hawks.
“That would be here, yes,” Millsap told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution of where his heart lies when asked about potentially being traded.
“Rumours are rumours. I think we know that. Been down this road before. … Whatever happens, I think everybody knows where my heart is and where I want to be. But we’ll see what happens. The only thing I can worry about and I can do is to go out there and play my butt off every night and try to get wins for this team.”
ESPN first reported that the Hawks were shopping Millsap. The Toronto Raptors would figure to be a team that would be interested given their ties to him in the past.
Millsap’s comments are typical of a player who’s supposedly on the block. He’s saying all the right things and going about his business the right way. What’s interesting about how forthright he was about saying he’d like to say is it could potentially throw a wrench into the Hawks’ plans to trade him.
With the ability to opt out of his current deal at season’s end, the 31-year-old is essentially an expiring contract so any team that’s going to make a deal for him would likely want some assurance he’ll re-sign with them, otherwise he’d just be a very expensive rental.
The NBA trade deadline is Feb. 23, so there’s plenty of time for this all to play out.
For now, however, Millsap is a Hawk, and it certainly looks like he’d rather keep it that way.
