Hawks end Paul Millsap trade talks after Al Horford joins Celtics

The Atlanta Hawks are done fielding calls about a trade involving Paul Millsap after Al Horford has agreed to a four-year max deal with the Boston Celtics.

According to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, “with [Al] Horford committing to the [Boston] Celtics, the [Atlanta] Hawks are expected to halt trade talks and will keep Paul Millsap.”

Millsap trade rumors had speculated since Friday evening when Atlanta agreed to bring Dwight Howard to the Hawks on a three-year deal. Atlanta shortly signed small forward Kent Bazemore to a multi-year deal. To make the increased salary cap, Atlanta may have had to part ways with Millsap in a trade to retain Horford after their two other signings.

While it is certainly awkward between Millsap and the Hawks, he’ll form another solid front court partnership with Howard, who is more of a traditional back-to-the-basket center when compared to Horford.

Horford is more of a finesse player with nimbleness and a great mid-range game. Howard is all about rim protection, put backs, and dominating opponents on the glass. If Millsap can handle being up for trade by the Hawks, he might actually have a better time playing alongside Howard than with Horford.

For as great of a player as Horford was for the Hawks (2007-16), he always played out of position at center when his natural position is at power forward. Though spacing wasn’t really an issue with Horford and Millsap on the floor, rebounding absolutely was, as the Hawks have stunk on the offensive glass during the Mike Budenholzer era in Atlanta (2013-present).

Perhaps the Howard signing allows the Hawks to be more balanced in the front court? Regardless, Atlanta still has an incredible power forward in Millsap who is now off the market despite potentially being in the last year of his Hawks’ contract. Millsap can opt out at the end of next season and become an unrestricted free agent.

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