Paul Milsap takes home the W in return to Atlanta
Paul Milsap returned to Atlanta this Friday after leaving the Hawks for the Denver Nuggets in the offseason. The versatile power forward has battled shooting inconsistencies from the arc and had little success moving the ball, but came into the game looking to make a statement against his former team.
While the Allstar continued his cold three point shooting, he found other ways to help his team. Milsap had several passes that promoted fluid ball movement and locked down his defensive assignment with his usual airtight D. He also pitched in 16 points and displayed his veteran leadership in huddle down the stretch with the game on the line.
The Nuggets secured the victory 105-100, but the lackluster Hawks roster fought to the end and made a game out of it. Early season struggles are to be expected from all teams and lineups are still being solved to configure the best possible rotations to get the most out of the diverse Denver roster.
One constant in an otherwise developing Nuggets team is their young star Nikola Jokic. The center leads the Nuggets in assists and rebounds by a large margin and is slowly becoming a more polished low post scorer with each game he notches under his belt.
With the departure of Milsap, Dwight Howard and Tim Hardaway Jr. from the Hawks, Dennis Schroder has been tasked with the immense burden of carrying an Atlanta squad devoid of direction and franchise talent. Although the season has largely lived up to expectations of great struggle and frustration, the German floor general has been the key component to keeping the Hawks competitive in their games to this point.
He won’t touch the league leaders in scoring nor will he come close to the best assist men in the NBA, but a season’s worth of trials and tribulations as the captain of a lost team may be vital in the development of his leadership and growing game. Should he model himself into a championship level point guard, plenty of contending teams could use a true distributor and may come knocking on the Hawks door come trade deadline.
