John Hollinger is worth the price of ESPN Insider.
Here's most of his take on Millsap to Portland (including sign and trade thoughts); for the full read and a great breakdown of the complicated Shawn Marion trade that includes the word "denuded," click here.
Portland can offer five years, $45 million with its current cap space, or five years, $52 million if it renounces its rights to Joel Freeland and Petteri Koponen. I like the former arrangement for two reasons. First, there's no reason to go punting away two assets for no reason. And second, $52 million is too much money for Millsap.
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Matching an offer for Millsap would put the Jazz $11 million over the luxury-tax threshold at the lower contract, $12 million at the higher. That's another reason not to bother with the $53 million: It really doesn't change the economics much for the Jazz.
During the seven days Utah has to match, the two sides could also agree to a sign-and-trade with the same contract terms for Millsap. If Utah included Kyle Korver and took back Travis Outlaw and the rights to Koponen and Freeland, the Jazz would be only $2 million over the tax and could probably dump the remaining salary at the trade deadline if need be.
Finally, Utah could preemptively agree to a sign-and-trade before Millsap inked an offer sheet with Portland. In that case, he could get a six-year deal with 10 percent raises. The carrot for Utah would be to include Matt Harpring in the above trade instead of Korver. Millsap would get a six-year, $55 million deal in that scenario and the Jazz would be only about half a million dollars over the tax threshold.
Report from Summer League practice coming later today. Just a head's up, the report could be a little later than usual as there are questions whether my laptop will be able to stay powered without Kevin Pritchard's golden aura producing the necessary electricity in the Practice Facility media room. Stay tuned.
Please drop any other Millsap links that you find in the comments.