No, Paul Millsap isn’t a fit with the Philadelphia 76ers

Whoa, whoa, whoa, halt the presses: We officially have the first whiffs of an NBA buyout on our hands, folks.

That’s right, on a day where Daryl Morey heavily inferred that the Philadelphia 76ers probably weren’t going to make a franchise-altering move at the trade deadline, fans were greeted to the first inklings of the 2022 buyout market, as the Brooklyn Nets have reportedly agreed to part ways with the Paul Millsap three weeks before the trade deadline.

Could the Nets ultimately find a new home for Millsap, either via a legitimate trade for another player or as a salary dump attached to a draft pick? Sure, the four-time All-Star is currently signed to a one-year, $2.6 million contract and could be moved fairly easily for any player making between $1.95 million and $3.25 million, but is there a market for an almost 37-year-old who is averaging less than 23 minutes per game?

In Chicago? Sure, Millsap would fit that roster perfectly. But with the Philadelphia 76ers? Yeah, not so much.

Paul Millsap checks very few of the Philadelphia 76ers’ boxes.

At this point in his career, Paul Millsap is sort of a weird player.

He isn’t the same guy who landed on the 2015-16 All-Defense team, isn’t a particularly efficient or prolific 3 point shooter, and his rebounding, while better than many of the players on the Philadelphia 76ers, is a shell of his former glory with the Atlanta Hawks.

In the right role, as an effort guy coming off the bench on a switching defensive system, Millsap can still be an effective player, maybe even one who starts games despite playing 20-ish minutes a night, but that all depends on the situation and what a team would be willing to give up to bring Millsap into the fray.

And no, before you ask, I’m not talking about ‘give up’ in terms of picks; I’m talking roster spots.

That’s right, even if the Sixers were interested in Millsap, which I don’t believe to be the case, who would they subtract to bring him to town? Would they cut/waive/trade Paul Reed? Isaiah Joe? Even Charles Bassey, the owner of the cheapest one-way contract on the Sixers has more developmental upside than the player 15 years his senior, especially since he is under team control through the 2023-24 season.

Unless the Sixers pull off a two-for-one trade to bring a shooter, playmaker, or rebounder to town and desperately need to find a live body to fill out their roster, there just isn’t a clear path to adding Millsap to the Sixers’ roster.

Sidebar: Between you and me, even if the Sixers did a three-for-one trade that shipped Danny Green, Andre Drummond, and Shake Milton to the Los Angeles Clippers for Marcus Morris (or whatever) I would imagine the team would find two other, younger players like Tyler Johnson and Shaq Harrison to fill out their roster instead of Millsap. With $2.59 million left of their mid-level exception to work with, the Sixers have options on the margins.

The Philadelphia 76ers haven’t landed a big time pickup on the buyout market since Ersan Ilyasova and Marco Belinelli all the way back in 2018. The duo elevated the team’s ceiling immensely, deepened Brett Brown‘s bench with two professional scorers, and most importantly of all, gave the roster a facelift without having to surrender an asset. If the Sixers opt against making a massive deal centered around Ben Simmons and can only secure a smaller deal around the margins, the buyout market could be a perfect supplemental way to improve the team and give Joel Embiid some much-needed help come playoff time. If that happens, the reinforcements likely won’t be named Paul Millsap, not in 2022 anyway.