Utah Jazz: Paul Millsap valuable but not a franchise changer

Because I've never had an agent or anyone bidding over my services, I don't completely understand the concept of free agency.

Paul Millsap is entertaining offers this week, and if he gets what he wants, the end result will be a salary that starts at $10 million. Per year, not per eon. Considering he made about $800,000 this year, that would be a 1,100 or 1,200 percent raise.

I'm all in favor of the Jazz retaining Millsap and giving him a generous bump in income. They can do that by matching any offer another team makes. The hazardous part is if someone offers him cuckoo money, say, $12 million or $14 million a year, and the Jazz buckle under the fear of having him return to haunt them. Then they're committed to a multiyear deal, at a huge price.

Millsap is a fine player but not a perennial All-Star. And he's certainly not a franchise player. He's a relentless, tough, no-nonsense guy. He gathers up the ball from off the floor, the rim, the glass and the loading docks, if necessary, and keeps it in play. There's not a team in the league that wouldn't want him.

But he's not a superstar.

I know it's a different era, with a different marketplace, but here's some food for thought: If Millsap gets $11 million a year, he'll be earning as much as 10-time All-Star John Stockton ever did.

There could be worse things than losing Millsap to free agency.

Signing him to an overpriced, never-ending contract, for example.

The Jazz need look no further than their own history to remember times when, in the heat of the moment, they paid too much for a very good player. Remember Andrei Kirilenko? He used to be a star in this town. He was supposed to be the cornerstone of the new Jazz. Now he's a confused, unpredictable player who will make $16.5 million next season. He's good but not good enough to lead them to the top.

These days he couldn't lead them to a 7-Eleven, much less the NBA Finals. Meanwhile, his salary is hindering the Jazz from re-signing Millsap.

It's amazing how the marketplace and the moment dictate things in the NBA. In 1997, the Jazz signed Greg Ostertag to a six-year, $30 million contract extension. That doesn't seem like a lot now, but back then it was plenty for a guy who wore a Fred Flintstone tattoo.