Atlanta Hawks: John Collins Ranked #28 in Best Players Under 25

John Collins of the Atlanta Hawks was recently ranked quite highly in FanSided’s “best of the rest” article for its 25-under-25 piece.

With training camp and the regular season rapidly approaching, John Collins and the Atlanta Hawks are ready to ramp up their basketball activities and prepare for the upcoming season any way they see fit.

Though the season will be shortly upon us, there are still plenty of season previews coming down the pipeline and a recent ranking by FanSided of the Top 25 players under 25 featured many interesting decisions as well as an unsurprising lack of Hawks players.

Indeed, no player on the Atlanta Hawks roster made the 25-under-25 list, which was limited to players that have already proved they are stars in the league – such as Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid, Jayson Tatum, Donovan Mitchell and Ben Simmons.

Despite no Atlanta Hawks member making the Top 25, one Hawks player did just miss the cut and make onto the “best of the rest” list. Second-year player John Collins, who was named to the All-Rookie Second Team after a sterling rookie year that saw him dominate as a dunker, rebounder and help-side shot-blocker, was named as the 28^th best player under 25 in the NBA for next season.

Though we would, of course, have him ranked higher (since he’s awesome), that ranking does put him ahead of players such as Dennis Smith Jr., DeAndre Ayton, Jusuf Nurkic, Jonathan Isaac and Kyle Kuzma.

All of those players were either drafted ahead of Collins or experienced more plaudits than him during his rookie season, so it was nice to see JC’s production rewarded on this list.

The story, written by Jonathan Macri, mentioned Collins’s willingness to step out to the three-point line as one of the reasons that his upcoming season might be better than some might expect. Of course, opportunity plays a big role in JC’s development:

“Best of all, he’ll get every opportunity to succeed in Atlanta moving forward. On a Hawks team that seems like a lock for the worst record in the league, Collins will have time to work on his game in all sorts of creative ways,” Macri wrote.

John the Baptist is already easily one of the 8 Best Players on the Atlanta Hawks, and he will have every opportunity to prove his worth on a Hawks team with very little to play for in the short-term – other than the young players’ own improvement.

Let’s hope John Collins leads the charge – with Trae Young, Kevin Huerter, Omari Spellman and Tyler Dorsey not far behind.