$30 million well spent: How Paul Millsap is proving his worth during Nuggets' stretch run

Monte Morris carries an incredible amount of moxie for someone who only logged 25 NBA minutes before this season.

The Nuggets’ 23 year old backup point guard, only two years removed from a storied four-year run at Iowa State, isn’t afraid to challenge his teammates no matter how much cachet they hold in Denver’s locker room. Morris will get in Nikola Jokic’s ear in fourth quarters to remind the Nuggets’ All-Star center that Denver’s going to feed him on nearly every possession late in games. Paul Millsap, who’s 11 years Morris’ senior, isn’t off limits either.

“I challenge him every game. The last few since All-Star I’m like, ‘Come out here and be aggressive.’ And he comes out there and does it,” Morris said after Millsap tallied a season-high 33 points last week against the Mavericks. “I was just proud of Paul because he’s turned it on after All-Star break, and we definitely need it.”

Millsap has proven over the last month that he can still flip that metaphorical switch when he needs to. He’s had three of his seven highest-scoring outings this season since last month’s All-Star break. The 71 points Millsap registered in his last three games combined is his third-highest point total over a three-game stretch in a Nuggets jersey. In terms of offensive efficiency, last week, when Millsap tallied 23 points on 8-12 shooting against the Timberwolves, 33 points while only missing five shots from the field against the Mavericks and 15 points two nights later versus the Pacers, was arguably the best Denver’s big man has played on that end of the floor over the last two years. He’s shot a combined 27-42 (64 percent) over those three outings.

Millsap capped the standout week with the game-winning basket in the Nuggets’ 102-100 win over the Pacers on Saturday. On the season, Millsap is shooting a team-best 62.5 percent (15-24) in the clutch, when the score is within five points with five minutes or less remaining.

“The All-Star break did me well physically but also mentally,” said Millsap. “Picking and choosing my spots, learning my spots, I took time to just contemplate the first half of the season and just get better from that. I love this game. It’s a fun game to me, and it’s always evolving. So I’ve got to evolve with it.”

What Millsap has done on the court this season shouldn’t be overlooked. He’s the captain, or as Michael Malone calls him, the “traffic cop” of the Nuggets’ 11th-ranked defense. Although Denver’s play on that end of the floor has fallen off from the beginning of the season, it’s still an impressive turnaround after three-straight years where the Nuggets landed in the bottom-1o in defensive efficiency. The Nuggets give up 107.9 points per 100 possessions when Millsap sits but only 104.6 when he plays. Millsap is second on the Nuggets behind Jokic in deflections and ranks 14th league-wide in Defensive Real Plus-Minus.

Millsap is shooting a healthy 35.7 percent on threes this year — his best mark since 2014-15 — and the 49.8 percent that he’s shooting from the floor is the power forward’s highest field goal percentage since the 2010-11 season. He’s hit those marks behind the same functional floor game that helped Millsap to four-straight All-Star appearances from 2011-14. Millsap’s offensive game isn’t flashy, it’s just reliable. He knows how to draw contact and get to the line, and around the hoop Millsap’s strong enough to play bully ball with most of the hybrid power forwards he goes up against.

He loves to operate in the mid-range too, and the 41 percent he’s shooting from that zone is on par with the 42 percent Millsap has averaged on shots from that distance over the last three seasons. Once he gets into the paint, Millsap goes to his bread-and-butter: his go-to shot, which he’s dubbed “my little floater.”

Fully recovered from a fractured big toe that he suffered in December, Millsap is as healthy as he’s been since arriving in Denver. He battled back from a wrist injury that cost him 44 games last season and returned in late-February, but Millsap never looked 100 percent during the Nuggets’ stretch run.

For most of this season, he’s been the player the Nuggets had targeted for several years before Denver’s front office was able to ink him to a three-year, $90 million contract in 2017.

Denver has 14 games remaining before the franchise’s first postseason appearance since 2013, and Millsap will factor heavily into the Nuggets’ plans during their stretch run, not just because of his scoring and defensive prowess but also his intangibles. On a roster that’s lacking playoff experience outside of Isaiah Thomas and Mason Plumlee, Denver will lean on Millsap’s composed presence when the games take on a more significant meaning over the next few weeks.

He’s been reliable in that department already this season, notably late in fourth quarters when he’s huddled his team up time and time again to deliver a sound two-word message that’s helped Denver close out both Dallas and Indiana over the last five days.

“Stay calm.”

“Younger guys have a tendency of panicking, feeling like they have to make a play or do something,” said Millsap. My presence and my job is to calm these guys down when things get crazy out there.”

It’s moments like those — that tend to occur in the high-intensity, playoff-like atmospheres that he’s accustomed to — where Millsap is earning the $30 million the Nuggets are paying him this season. The contract, which runs through the 2019-20 season (the Nuggets have a team option on the final year of the deal) has been criticized, mainly because of Millsap’s inability to stay healthy. But he’s been worth every penny for his performance this season and how he’s helped cultivate a winning culture inside the Nuggets’ locker room.

“You need a vet, especially like Millsap. Great guy,” said Morris. “He has so much knowledge, so much experience with this league. He’s been in the league a long time. We’ve got a young team, and we go to him and to I.T. for a lot of advice. We’re happy to have him in the locker room and out there on the court also.”

The Nuggets’ Millennial-filled locker room will go to Millsap for advice and a chance to pick a basketball brain that’s been soaking up NBA wisdom for the last decade-plus. Millsap is full of information, and he’s willing to share the tricks of the trade with anyone willing to listen. But even at the ripe age of 34, he’s still acquiring knowledge too while leading Morris and the young Nuggets to the playoffs.

“I’m still learning. Thirty-four years old, been in the league for 13 years and still learning the game,” Millsap said. “That’s what’s fun about it that’s what makes this game great. You never think you’ve got it. You never really have it. You’re constantly learning, constantly getting better.”