Is Paul Millsap leaving the Nuggets for the Mavs?

Free agency begins next week but Paul Millsap may have already jilted the Denver Nuggets for the Dallas Mavericks.

The Dallas Mavericks have a Paul Millsap jersey for sale, leading to more questions about his future with the Denver Nuggets.

While this could certainly be a mistake, it’s worth mentioning that the NBA Global Store has yet to remove it from their listing. Millsap has played in the NBA for 14 seasons but none of those seasons came with Dallas.

With the three-year, $90 million contract that Millsap signed with Denver in 2017 set to inspire, the Nuggets could lose a leader, culture-driver, and (an at times) defensive stalwart that their young squad has come to rely on.

Unfortunately, Denver has limited financial resources and though Millsap may be a player they would like to see back in a Nuggets uniform, he’s not their main priority this offseason. That distinction goes to Jerami Grant, Denver’s third-best player during last season’s playoff run.

As a result, there’s a real possibility that the Nuggets opt to move on from Millsap unless he’s willing to take the $9.3 million mid-level exception. A possibility but not a strong one as the savvy veteran is making a decision not just for himself but his wife and four kids as well.

Ironically, Mavericks only have the mid-level exception available as well.

The difference is that Dallas could free up nearly $74 million in cap space just by renouncing their current free agents and finding new homes for Tim Hardaway Jr., Maxi Kleber and Delon Wright. Such a move would put them about $30 million under the cap and give them and obvious advantage over Denver.

It was rumored a couple of weeks ago that some impending free agents may have already reached agreements with teams. Millsap, from the looks of it, could be one of those players.

We’ll all know more on Nov. 20 when free agency begins but it looks like the chances the Nuggets retain Millsap have taken a bit of a hit.