Boston Celtics: Breaking down why Cs should pursue Paul Millsap
By Chris Conte
The Good and the Bad of Paul Millsap’s offense
Millsap is entering free agency after a solid season off the bench for the Denver Nuggets, offering many skill sets while complimenting the team’s star players.
Millsap has fallen off as a shooter since his days in Atlanta beside Al Horford, but he’s still a great corner 3-point specialist, shooting 46 percent from that region and remains a willing shooter.
When his shot isn’t falling, the forward is a master on the post. Last season he ranked in the 90th percentile on post-ups and shot 60 percent from 0-3 feet and 50 percent from 3-10 feet.
Millsap has a ton of counters on the post, and he has excellent touch on the inside combining great strength and patience to out-maneuver opposing defenders despite lacking in speed and overall athleticism.
Millsap can provide high-level offensive rebounding without the ball and does a great job at driving closeouts on kick-outs.
He has excellent rebounding habits, combining great lower and upper body strength with high IQ positioning to average 1.4 offensive rebounds in 20 minutes per game.
When he’s playing on the perimeter, Millsap can put the ball on the deck and get his own against an already collapsed defense, making him the perfect power forward to have on the wings with Jaylen Brown and Dennis Schroder collapsing defenses off picks.
His ability to drive closeouts also applies to his ability to expose mismatches, specializing in leveraging his footwork and strength against smaller perimeter defenders.
As a passer, Millsap does not bring anything close to what his frontcourt partner, Nikola Jokic, brings but provides more than what the Boston Celtics currently have.
Millsap is an excellent extra passer, ranking in the 72nd percentile in AST% and averaging 20.5 passes made per game. When he puts the ball on the floor, Millsap is far from a black hole, passing out of 25 percent of all his drives, making him a capable kick-out passer.
The Boston Celtics will appreciate Millsap’s crisp decision-making and timely deliveries as they try to improve their ball movement.
The downside of Millsap’s offense mostly comes with his age and his career-known limitations.
He’s not as quick, strong, or athletic as he used to be, meaning he can’t be relied upon to produce a large volume of post-up buckets or creation off the dribble. At 36, Millsap’s shooting has not aged like he may have wanted it to, hitting only 34 percent of his catch-and-shoot triples last season.
As for his passing, the veteran’s only downside is he doesn’t provide high-level passing or anything close to primary playmaking.
The Boston Celtics should not expect Millsap to resemble anything close to his prime years as a ball-handler.