It’s always interesting when players are looking for new money. How they play and interact with teammates, coaches, and media varies. But typically you don’t want to begin your season on the wrong side of the best player on your team. It usually doesn’t end well. That’s essentially the situation John Collins and the Hawks had on their hands back in January.
Collins was unhappy with how Trae Young was running the team. In the midst of a three-game losing skid, he let it be known during a team film session.
The immediate aftermath was not great. But we see what happened in the wake of that little blow-up as the Hawks made a coaching change and now find themselves one win away from their first-ever Eastern Conference Finals appearance.
The Atlanta Hawks need a bounceback performance from John Collins in Game 7
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It is imperative that Collins get back into his typical scoring ways if the Hawks are going to win Game 7. He had the highlight dunk of the postseason, if not the year, and hauled in 10 rebounds in Game 6. But he only had seven points while shooting 25 percent from the floor and going 0-for-3 from three-point range.
It was Collins’ third game of the postseason and second in this series with fewer than 10 points after he had just seven such games throughout the entire regular season. To be fair, he has been better in this series, averaging 15.3 points compared to 13.9 points in the postseason.
The last time Collins had single-digit points was in Game 2 on the road in Philadelphia. He came out the next game and scored 23 points, though the Hawks still lost at home.
That was also his only game in Philly with fewer than 19 points and Atlanta won the other two.
There might be something to the fact that Collins had the huge dunk and shot so poorly from outside that the Hawks can work with. They don’t want to eliminate the deep-ball from his arsenal. But perhaps sending him to the basket more will allow them to both get him going and put some wear and tear on Tobias Harris.
Collins certainly hasn’t offered much resistance defensively as Harris is averaging 21.5 points this series. He needs to be more than just a rebounder to have the kind of impact the Hawks need from him.
To put it in no uncertain terms, he needs to be a better scorer in Game 7 for the Hawks to win.