Paul Millsap Deciding Between Magic, Hawks

1:18pm: Millsap is leaning toward re-signing with the Hawks, according to Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops and Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders (Twitter links).

11:11am: The Hawks are confident they can retain Millsap, tweets Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today.

8:48am: Paul Millsap met with the Magic overnight, reports Tony Jones of the Salt Lake Tribune (on Twitter), and at this point he’s deciding between those two teams, as Jones and TNT’s David Aldridge report (Twitter links), even though the Pacers and Mavericks also have interest, according to Jones (Twitter link). Orlando offered the power forward a four-year, $80MM deal, reports Chris Broussard of ESPN (on Twitter). The Knicks are interested, too, but Millsap won’t meet with them, nor will he do so with Indiana or Dallas, Broussard adds (Twitter link).

Atlanta has made the same offer the Magic have, Broussard writes in a full story. Their offers appear to be for the max, as the estimated starting salary for a player with Millsap’s experience is roughly $19MM, though that figure doesn’t factor in any rise in the cap projection that would lift the max by about $600K. If the cap winds up as much as $2MM over the previously projected $67.1MM figure, as Ken Berger of CBSSports.com reported was a distinct possibility, it would ostensibly help the Hawks retain both Millsap and DeMarre Carroll, though Orlando’s aggressive entry into the Millsap sweepstakes keeps the pressure on. Atlanta, armed with only Early Bird rights on the two of them, had been losing faith in the idea of re-signing them both.

The Jazz reportedly planned an active pursuit, but as free agency drew near, and especially after the selection of Trey Lyles at pick No. 12 last week, Utah increasingly appeared to be a long shot, tweets Jody Genessy of the Deseret News. Orlando’s play for Millsap is a significant development for the club that’s been in a rebuilding phase since trading Dwight Howard nearly three years ago, and if the Magic land Millsap and turn away from fellow forward Tobias Harris as a result, it could well have implications for the restricted free agency market, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com. The Magic have long coveted Millsap, having attempted to trade for him before the 2012/13 season, notes Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel (Twitter link).