Atlanta Hawks: John Collins should get more time at center this season

The Atlanta Hawks have their media day on Monday and many of the questions will be about the newly revealed injuries. Many expected De’Andre Hunter to perhaps be slowed, or understood why they would pull back on Bogdan Bogdanovic or even Cam Reddish in camp. But that both Clint Capela and Kevin Huerter dealing with ailments is surprising.

Most of those help each other with Bogdanovic, Huerter, Hunter, and Reddish rotating between two spots as it is.

But Capela’s injury, which he is expected to be over by the start of the regular season, could present another opportunity.

The Atlanta Hawks have every reason to use John Collins at center more this season

John Collins’ foray into restricted free agency was probably over before it began. Some may want to criticize for what has been described as “some bidding against themselves”. But it’s fair to wonder how much of his cooler-than-expected market can be attributed to it being known the offer Atlanta had on the table.

We also got word that they were willing to match any offer for him well before the start of free agency.

Still, his return on a deal worth up to $125 million was much needed and they avoided having to max him as many expected.

They’ll need him to do even more this season, at least to start. Capela’s injury might be healed up by the start of the season but it could mean we see more of Collins at the five. While we wouldn’t expect him to quite approach his pre-Capela center minutes, more time is in order.

Collins played about 47 percent of his minutes at center in 2020. Last season, that fell to about 14 percent.

Having Capela and Onyeka Okongwu, the sixth-overall pick in last year’s NBA Draft, obviously reduced the need for Collins to withstand the beating that can come from playing amongst the trees.

With Okongwu not expected back until January at the earliest, Atlanta went out and signed Gorgui Dieng in free agency. He should be able to provide some rim protection while also stretching the floor and keeping the lane open. They also have Okafor and Johnny Hamilton on non-guaranteed deals to possibly provide bench depth until Okongwu returns.

However, per Brad Rowland of Locked On Hawks, Capela underwent a procedure similar to the one that Reddish had that kept him on the sidelines for four months.

Even if he is back in time to start the regular season, it makes sense to take it easy on him.

Collins’ minutes at center haven’t always been great. He isn’t the biggest or the strongest and is a better chase-down blocker than rim-protector. But this intermittent shift wouldn’t be about defense,

It would be about using the non-Capela (or Dieng) minutes to go up-tempo on offense and try to run the other team’s unit off of the court.

Atlanta’s offensive rating was a full six points better with Collins on the floor. And, for the mention of his defense, their defensive rating was just 1.5 points worse. For what it’s worth, they were 1.8 points better offensively and 2.3 points better defensively with Collins on the floor in 2019.

You probably don’t want him there too much. It negatively impacts his offense in large doses.

But, as a frequent changeup, it could be borderline lethal. With all of the wings that the Hawks have and, of course, Trae Young at the helm, Collins could be the Hawks version of Bam Adebayo in smaller doses.