The Toronto Raptors nearly acquired Atlanta Hawks forward Paul Millsap during this past off-season shortly before Al Horford signed with the Boston Celtics.
Speaking on the TrueHoop Podcast Tuesday, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said the Raptors and Hawks had a deal in place that would’ve sent three-time all-star Millsap north in the event Atlanta was able to successfully convince Horford to return at the last minute.
“Over the summer, after [Atlanta] did trade Jeff Teague and signed Dwight Howard they were all set to trade Millsap if Al Horford had re-signed. They were going to trade him to Toronto,” Windhorst said. “And then that deal fell through and Horford went to Boston.”
After the dust settled on the free-agent frenzy, ESPN’s Zach Lowe reported the Raptors had Millsap discussions with Hawks along with the likes of the Denver Nuggets, Houston Rockets and Phoenix Suns.
If what Windhorst said is true, it would appear Toronto came the closest at the time.
Now with the Hawks reportedly shopping Millsap again and the Raptors, once again, linked to the big man will a deal finally be hammered out? Toronto has much of the same roster to dangle right now as it did back in July, so common sense would dictate an attractive offer wouldn’t be all that hard to come up with again.
The NBA trade deadline is Feb. 23.
