Atlanta Hawks Team Awards at the All-Star Break
By Chris Guest
Rookie of the Year: John Collins
One thing is very clear from the 2017-18 Atlanta Hawks season: John Collins is going to be a great player for many years.
JC is one of two Hawks players who will be participating in All-Star weekend via the Rising Stars game, though Taurean Prince was an injury substitution whereas Collins was named to Team USA from the jump.
Collins has clearly been the Hawks’ best first-year player – and he also got considerable consideration as the team’s MVP and best overall player. JC is certainly in the running for that major category, as he leads the team in Player Efficiency Rating (19.8), total rebounds (370), offensive rebounds (141), blocks (61), win shares (4.0), box plus/minus (1.8) and dunks (90).
Oh yes, he definitely leads the team in dunks:
Collins has clearly made the most of his playing time, and the only reason he did not quite make his mark as team MVP is because of his limited minutes. JC averages only 22.3 minutes per game, which ranks as only 7th on the team.
JC has also shown tremendous efficiency this season as he is third on the team in true shooting percentage, which aggregates field goal, three-point and free throw shooting into a catch-all statistic. Collins’s 62.1% is mere percentage points behind Dewayne Dedmon (62.9%) and Mike Muscala (62.6%) in that category.
There is little reason why he should not see the floor much more going forward, and as the Hawks’ Rookie of the Year at the All-Star break, JC has also set himself up for All-NBA First Team All-Rookie honors as well – though the competition will be fierce.