Atlanta Hawks: John Collins vs. Amar’e Stoudemire, Two Seasons In

A comparison between the sophomore season of Atlanta Hawks wunderkind John Collins and former All-Star Amar’e Stoudemire of the Phoenix Suns.

The “seven seconds or less” Phoenix Suns featuring Steve Nash, Shawn Marion, Joe Johnson and Amar’e Stoudemire were one of the most entertaining teams in recent memory. The Atlanta Hawks of today have previously been compared to that innovative squad on this very site.

In particular, Trae Young compares favorably to Steve Nash, Kevin Huerter is a stand-in for the legend Iso Joe – Joe Johnson – and second-year bucket-getter John Collins is the Amar’e Stoudemire clone in this scenario.

That last comparison is the one that deserves special attention after Collins’s sophomore year in the NBA.

As we all know, Collins put up big numbers in his second season, producing some sterling numbers of 19.5 points per game and 9.8 rebounds per contest in his age-21 season last year. Let’s actually compare those numbers to Stoudemire’s second season with the Suns, which also happened to be his age-21 year.

Though Stoudemire bested Collins in raw scoring (20.6 PPG to 19.5 PPG per Basketball Reference), Amar’e also played 6.8 more minutes per contest than JC – leading to minutes totals of 2025 to 1829, respectively.

Notably, Collins was a better offensive rebounder (3.6 ORBPG vs 2.9 ORBPG) and passer (2.0 APG vs. 1.4 APG) in his second season for the Atlanta Hawks than Stoudemire was for the Suns in 2003-04.

Most importantly in today’s analytically inclined, efficiency-focused NBA, Collins produced far more striking efficiency numbers in his second season than Stoudemire did: Collins’s 62.7 percent true shooting percentage clobbers Stoudemire’s 53.6 true shooting clip.

Collins also bested Stoudemire in all three rebounding percentages per Basketball Reference, win shares (6.0 vs. 4.4), player efficiency rating (21.8 vs. 19.8) and box plus/minus (1.4 vs. -1.0).

Though these numbers are not the be-all and end-all of each player’s profile, they do serve as a solid proxy for their on-court importance to their respective teams. Still, at this point, JC is still an unproven young big man for the Atlanta Hawks and Stoudemire is a widely respected big man with multiple All-Star appearances on his resume.

Can JC reach that potential? By looking at his numbers and comparing them to Stoudemire’s, it seems rather likely.

Keep it locked to Soaring Down South for plenty more Atlanta Hawks news and updates.