For the Atlanta Hawks, John Collins Keeps Getting Better

The Atlanta Hawks might’ve picked the steal of the draft when they selected John Collins 19^th overall out of Wake Forest University.

As has been stated previously, Collins is a dark horse NBA Rookie of the Year candidate and is probably 4^th in the pecking order behind the breakout performances of Ben Simmons, Jayson Tatum and Donovan Mitchell.

Despite not putting up the flashy numbers of Simmons and Mitchell and not having the all-around impact on a playoff-bound team like Tatum on the Celtics, Collins is quietly putting together an excellent first season in the league and should be bound for a First-Team All-Rookie selection at the end of the year.

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Ever since missing two weeks with a shoulder injury, JC has picked up right where he left off by rebounding and dunking with malice, and improving his all-around game with solid performances in the final weeks of 2017.

As we approach the halfway mark of the Hawks’ season, it has become clear that Collins is an important building block for the future, as he already looks to be one of the best players on the Atlanta Hawks and myriad statistics back up this claim.

Collins is up to 689 minutes played in the 2017-18 season, which ranks as fifth on the team behind only stalwart starters Taurean Prince (1125), Dennis Schröder (1065) and Kent Bazemore (1025) as well as sixth man Marco Belinelli (866).

A rash of personal fouls early in the season for JC (at one point he was leading the league) curtailed his minutes to start the year, but he has scaled back that jittery rookie behavior and turned into a solid defender who can control himself without resorting to silly fouls.

As was the case last time we checked in on his stats, Collins is first on the Hawks in Player Efficiency Rating, which is a measure of per-minute production normalized to provide a league average of 15. JC clocks in with a magnificent 21.2 PER, which paces the Hawks by more than 2 points and is 25^th overall in the league and easily the highest among rookies.

When Collins is on the floor, the Hawks are a completely different basketball team. As the most threatening pick-and-roll finisher on the team, Collins draws a lot of attention, and his usage percentage has also increased since early in the season, as he is now 4^th on the Hawks in usage at 20.2 percent, behind only Schröder (29.3%), Bazemore (21.7%) and Belinelli (21.5%).

In fact, Collins (along with his fellow 2017 draftmate Tyler Dorsey) should really have the ball in his hands more, so he can work on his all-around game and perhaps work on his midrange shot, which has looked pretty good so far in his young career.

Another of Collins’s major strengths on the offensive end is his innate ability to fight through traffic and nab offensive rebounds at an impressive clip. JC always seems to be in the right place at the right time to grab boards on the offensive end and provide his team the opportunity to score some second chance points.

Collins has a whopping 90 offensive rebounds on the year, which is first among rookies by a wide margin and clocks in at 11^th overall in the league – an impressive feat for a rookie. With those 90 OREBS, which is also first on the Hawks, Collins has an enormous 15 percent offensive rebound percentage, which puts him at 5^th in the entire league alongside elite rebounders like DeAndre Jordan and Andre Drummond.

JC is not just a one-trick-pony rebounder on the offensive end though, as his lethal finishing puts him in exclusive company in terms of field goal percentage as well. Of Collins’s 142 made field goals, which ranks 5^th on the Hawks, 62 of those are dunks and his field goal percentage is sky-high as a result.

Among qualified Hawks, Collins is leading in field goal percentage with a muscular 59.7 percent – only Miles Plumlee in just over 300 minutes and roughly 180 fewer field goal attempts has a higher FG% of 61.0.

That 59.7 FG% ranks Collins 4^th in the NBA in that category, and his 11.3 points per game ranks him 5^th on the Hawks. A combination of solid production in terms of scoring and incredible efficiency makes Collins a valuable asset for any team – and one of the best players on the Hawks.

Coming out of the draft, JC was not lauded as a net positive on the defensive end. However, through the first 36 games of the season, Collins has been remarkably solid defensively.

As expected, his A+ rebounding also extends to the defensive end, where his 21.1 percent defensive rebounding percentage is second on the team – only behind Dewayne Dedmon’s 27.5%, who has played 200 fewer minutes than Collins and has been out with an injury for more than a month.

Combined with his offensive rebounding prowess, Collins’s total rebounding percentage of 18.0% places him at 15^th in the NBA – again, an amazing number for a rookie through the first 36 games of his career.

Another area of expertise for Collins has been his shot-blocking, as his 32 blocks lead the Hawks and his 4.1 block percentage is tied with Serge Ibaka for 10^th in the league.

Overall, Collins has been perhaps the Hawks’ best player, and his 120 offensive rating per 100 possessions is 2^nd on the team behind only surprising rookie Tyler Cavanaugh at 128. Collins is also one of 6 Hawks with a net positive rating per 100 possessions, as his +8 rating is highest among qualified players on the Hawks.

Collins also has the highest win share total on the Hawks with 2.4, and his nickname of John the Baptist (coined by Hawks TV play-by-play announcer) is easily the best on the team.

JC is shaping up to be the face of the Hawks franchise, and the promising start to his career only cements his status as a future star for the Hawks.