The Atlanta Hawks (34-34) have gone 2-0 without John Collins in the lineup. After narrowly escaping with victories over the short-handed Indiana Pacers and Portland Trail Blazers, they face the high-scoring Charlotte Hornets on the road. This is sure to be a popcorn-worthy spectacle with both teams currently jockeying with each other for positioning in the Play-In Tournament.
It’s a 2-1 advantage for the Hawks in the season series but Charlotte is scoring the ball lights out right now and the Hawks have struggled to get stops all season.
Fortunately, so has Charlotte.
But the Hawks are at a major disadvantage with Collins out. He is a key piece, not just overall with his versatility. He also lets them unleash one of the NBA’s most efficient lineups featuring him alongside Bogdan Bogdanovic, Clint Capela, Kevin Huerter, and Trae Young.
The Atlanta Hawks best lineup has been rendered ineffective lately
We’ve mentioned Collin’s role in the Hawks most efficient lineup several times. Among lineups with at least 100 minutes together, the Hawks best five ranks tops in the league at plus-30.8 on the season. That group boasts a plus-30.3 net rating, per Cleaning The Glass (which removes garbage time); good enough for sixth-best in the NBA.
For context, the Hawks starting lineup – which features De’Andre Hunter in place of Bogdan Bogdanovic – sports a plus-2.2 net rating. The other variation of the starting lineup featured Bogdanovic starting over Huerter has maintained a plus-6.7 net rating.
Without Collins, the Hawks seen their most potent offensive grouping neutralized as Hunter at power forward hasn’t yielded even good results.
The Hawks have been outscored by 7.5 points per 100 possessions in those minutes.
They’ve seen that group’s net rating plummet all the way down to minus-69.6 over the last two games with Hunter in Collins’ place. But it isn’t as simple as plugging Collins in for Hunter. A group with Hunter in the lineup with Capela, Huerter, Young, and reserve guard Delon Wright has a plus-24.4 net rating.
That’s one of just three lineups to appear in both games since Collins went down. Both of the other two have negative net ratings including the aforementioned Hakws ‘death lineup’ that now has Hunter — who has been on a tear offensively — in Collins’ place.
The underlying issue is how delicate the Hawks balance seems to be this season. They’ve dealt with as much adversity as any team but not always as well as they could have.
They need Collins back for several reasons. This is just one way of illustrating it.
At the last update, Nate McMillan said the high-flying forward is “getting better” but there is still no set schedule for his return.