The Atlanta Hawks could trade Paul Millsap between now and the trade deadline to avoid risking him leave in free agency with nothing coming back in return.

The Hawks have held trade talks involving Millsap at last year's deadline and in the offseason when they were trying to re-sign Al Horford while also adding Dwight Howard.

"This has happened twice in the last year," said Brian Windhorst about the Hawks trading Millsap. "They almost traded him to Denver at the trade deadline last year. They also had a trade lined up for Jeff Teague and ultimately decided not to do either trade. And ended up in the second round against the Cavs where they got swept.

"Then over the summer, after they did trade Jeff Teague and signed Dwight Howard, they were all set to trade Millsap if Al Horford had re-signed. They were going to trade him to Toronto. That deal fell through when Horford went to Boston.

"They've twice before brought their toes to the line on Millsap."

Toronto has long had interest in upgrading the power forward position.