FanPost

I'm as big of a Paul Millsap fan as anyone, but.....


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(John Bazemore / Associated Press)


Disclaimer: This article is in no way, shape, or form Anti-Millsap.

I know this seems kind of out of line to post this sort of article in the middle of a playoff run, but I had something on my mind, and I have been sort of M.I.A. on the site as a whole, so here is sort of my comeback fanpost.

We all know (or at least should know) about my affinity for the all-around offensive game that Paul Millsap, a.k.a. Paul Trillsap, a.k.a. Paul G.O.A.T.sap. We also all know (or at least should know) about the pending free agency of Mr. Millsap.

Over the past couple of years, I've been saying that at some point, GM Danny Ferry Mike Budenholzer is going to make a decision between which big man to keep out of Millsap, and the longest tenured Hawk, Al Horford. My reasoning has never been because one isn't worthy of being re-signed, but because while the duo of Millsap and Horford do in fact work on the court, as a combo, they are quite a bit undersized, to be kind about it.

This isn't so much a knee-jerk reaction article about what happened against Brook Lopez and the Brooklyn Nets, but we should acknowledge that series sort of exposed some of the size issues that the Millsap-Horford duo poses on the defensive end.

Coach Mike Budenholzer touts his system as being one in which positions are interchangeable, more specifically the Power Forward and Center positions. This might be the case on offense, since both players have significant speed advantages against most big men, along with the ability to put the ball on the floor and get to the rim, to a lesser extent in Horford's case.

While this is the case on offense, this is NOT the case on defense. If the Power Forward and Center positions were truly interchangeable, Coach Bud would've theorectically been able to put Millsap (who was getting outquicked by Thaddeus Young) on Brook Lopez for stretches in that series. Millsap (while getting muscled around by David West) would've theorectically been able to have been rotated onto Roy Hibbert in last year's playoffs instead of having to play a cold, and to his credit, still injured Pero Antic on Hibbert the entire series. Also, to Antic's credit, he didn't do a bad job on Hibbert, but he was a huge liability on offense.

I know these are two of the largest men in the league that I am using as examples, but we some of us go on and on about how undersized Al Horford is, yet we believe the hype that the 6'7" at best Millsap can be interchangeable on the defensive end with the 6'10"-ish Horford who a lot of Hawks fans feel is undersized at the center position.

Now all of that leads to this...I think that "decision" has been made by who is supposed to be available in free agency.

We all a lot of us talk about how the Hawks have literally no post game. Bringing Millsap back isn't going to change that, despite the fact that he has the full catalog of Jeffersonian up fakes and spin moves, along with the non-Jeffersonian ability to put the ball on the floor, and not be a graveyard for offensive possessions once the ball reaches his hands. Bringing Millsap back isn't also won't change the fact that Al Horford is and always has been a jumpshooter. This isn't a knock on either player, but I call a Spade a Spade.

As much as everyone a lot of Hawks fans like to talk about the fact that our big men need to be able to have 3 point range, this is false. Having bigs who can shoot threes is a luxury, not a mandate. As much as everyone Hawks fans like to talk about the parallels between the Hawks and the San Antonio Spurs, there are two things that jump out to me which always get ignored.

1. Name a Spurs big since the inception of the "Spurs Model" day Tim Duncan was drafted who shot 3 pointers on a consistent basis....Matt Bonner, who is pretty much a "gimmick" player in the same way that Pero Antic is, but one who is a career 41% 3 point shooter. That's it.

2. Name the shortest player to start games in the frontcourt with Tim Duncan...6'7" Dejuan Blair, who was pretty much Elton Brand from 3 years ago with the Mavericks in Elton Brand's body, meaning he was a short dude (for his position) with the wingspan of a 7 footer. With that said, Blair was nowhere near the talent that Millsap or Brand was, and as a result, he's out of the league.

Blair wasn't a particularly great player, but used his length and hustle to stay in the league for 6 years, despite not having ACLs in both knees. When you look back, none of Tim Duncan's frontcourt mates since the retirement of David Robinson have been greatly talented. They have just been big. Guys like Malik Rose, Francisco Elson, Rasho Nesterovic, Ian Mahinmi, Nazr Mohammed, the corpse of Antonio McDyess, and Tiago Splitter have all taken on the lion's share of starts beside Duncan. For the most part, all of these guys were big, in one way or another.

Now, for the main point of this article, Coach/GM Budenholzer needs to acquire a player that truly makes the Power Forward and Center positions interchangeable. On BOTH offense AND defense, because that player isn't currently on the roster, sorry Mike Muscala fans.

That player is current Portland Trail Blazer LaMarcus Aldridge. Yes, the same LaMarcus Aldridge that shot 33% in the playoffs, yet somehow managed to average 21.8 points per game, to go along with 11.8 rebounds per game against arguably the best, or at least the toughest big man duo in the league in Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol.

I know a lot of Hawks fans covet the previously mentioned Gasol, and want to pair him with Horford so Al can move to his "natural position". Personally, I think getting Gasol would be a mistake. I think Gasol's success mainly comes from the style of basketball that the Memphis Grizzlies play, and that we as Hawks fans would be very disappointed in paying Gasol max-type money for the production we would get from him.

Aldridge is everything Paul Millsap is, but in a taller, longer body. He's Al Horford with more length and a post game. He brings that same pick and roll/pick and pop option to the offense that Horford does. He's versatile enough on offense, and big enough on defense to make Bud's DEFENSE interchangeable when it comes to the Power Forward and Center positions. It would almost be like having two Al Horfords in a sense.

If we're going to compare and contrast the Hawks and Spurs, LaMarcus Aldridge is the player who could be our "poor man's Tim Duncan", who while nowhere the defensive force that Duncan is, Aldridge is the same type of 20-10 player as prime Duncan who can carry your offense. Al Horford could be the "poor man's David Robinson" in this scenario, which is not a slight at all, but probably not the most apt comparison between the game or Horford and the game of Robinson, but it has to fit the Spurs parallel, so I'm going to continue to roll with it.

If there is in fact a decision to be made, as much as it pains me to say it, it has to be to let Millsap walk and get LaMarcus Aldridge.

A FanPost expresses the opinion of the community member who wrote it and not that of the blog management.