The Atlanta Hawks should explore trading John Collins says Bleacher Report’s Zach Buckley. In his piece titled, “Realistic Offseason Trades NBA Fanbases Wouldn’t See Coming”, Buckley wonders if the Hawks wouldn’t be better off divesting from their high-flying forward this coming offseason.
Collins returned to the Hawks rotation in Game 1 versus the Miami Heat after missing over a month with finger and foot injuries and started Game 2 at center with Clint Capela sidelined.
Now down 0-2, the Hawks head back to Atlanta where they have been a very different team.
Yet and still, Fischer thinks that they might have an opportunity to “swap offense for defense” by making a deal with one Western Conference team. The cost, though, is mighty steep if you’ve been invested in this team since Day 1 of this core.
Would the Atlanta Hawks benefit by moving on from John Collins this offseason?
Buckley gets right to it calling out the Hawks who “nosedived” this season finishing as the nine-seed a season after they made an improbable run to the Eastern Conference Finals. Buckley thinks that a quick exit from the postseason for the Hawks could “spark sweeping change”.
To his point, teams that fall down 0-2 have come back to win just 31 times in 435 tries, per Land Of Basketball. That is a 7.1% success rate, a wholly untenable situation.
The solution? A swap with the Oklahoma City Thunder sending Collins for a bevy of pieces including stud wing defenders, Luguentz Dort and Kenrich Williams, as well as big man Derrick Favors and a first-round pick.
That is quite the haul even if you are high on Collins who was arguably having his best season before getting injured averaging 16.8 points on 53.7% shooting while knocking down 38.8% of his looks from beyond the arc. He also averaged 7.9 rebounds, 1.9 assists, and 1.1 steals per game.
"Collins…finishing and floor-spacing could shine alongside shot-creators Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Josh Giddey…The Thunder have enough picks and prospects to sacrifice a few for an under-25 player who has posted near-All-Star numbers over the last four seasons (18.5 points, 8.7 rebounds and 55.6/37.9/79.5 shooting)."
The last line there serves as a reminder of just what Collins brings to the table when healthy.
After missing his first game due to his foot injury against the Boston Celtics on February 13, Collins appeared in just four more games in the regular season, averaging 9.3 points and 6.3 rebounds while shooting 35.9% overall and hitting just 2-of-16 threes.
In two playoff games, he has put up 11.5 points and 7.0 boards with 1.5 assists, and 1.0 steals
He is shooting 58.8% from the floor and 33.3% from deep, an improvement over his last stint in the regular season.
Dort averaged a career-high 17.2 points and 4.2 rebounds per game for the 24-58 Thunder. But his best skill is his defense.
🔒 DORT STEAL AND SLAM 🔒 pic.twitter.com/V4jH8PkdDM
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) January 18, 2022
Jumping passing lanes isn’t even half of what Dort brings as a defender. He sports a 112.0 defensive rating, per Cleaning The Glass. That is 2.8 points better than De’Andre Hunter who is supposed to be the Hawks’ top perimeter defender. It is 1.5 points higher than Delon Wright who has been their best perimeter defender this season.
"This season, he handled the league’s most difficult matchups, per Bball-Index.com, had zero rim protection behind him and still shaved 0.4 percent off his opponents’ field-goal percentage."
Dort’s 103.3 offensive rating left him with a minus-8.8 net rating but his offensive game is still developing.
His teammate, Williams, posted a 104.1 offensive rating – well below Hunter’s 116.4 or Wright’s 114.4 ratings – but he also posted a 103.5 defensive rating. That is 10 points better than Wright who is an unrestricted free agent after this season and part of why Williams was a target of ours at this year’s trade deadline.
Dort has a club option worth $1.9 million for next season, per Spotrac.com, while Williams has one non-guaranteed year remaining on his deal that will lock in if he is on a roster come opening night.
As Buckley argues, that should be on the Hawks roster.
"Get him on the wings with De’Andre Hunter and Kevin Huerter, and the Hawks could have a wall of long-limbed, active defenders, all backed by Clint Capela or Onyeka Okongwu. If there’s a way for a Trae Young-led roster to have a functional defense, this is it."
Favors has a player option worth more than $10 million next season and, depending on how you view Onyeka Okongwu (in this case favorably), there might not be much use for him in Atlanta. But he can be used in another deal at a later date and, most importantly, still comes with the draft pick.
We received reports that the Hawks wanted to “reset” their financial clock prior to their trading Cam Reddish to the New York Knicks.
This doesn’t necessarily accomplish that with Collins locked in through 2025 with a player option for 2026 after signing a deal worth up to $125 million over five years this past offseason. Still, that did not stop the Hawks from shopping him at the deadline.
They went 17-10 after he missed the Boston game and 15-8 without him in that span.
His market was not as hot as expected this past offseason, perhaps due to it being widespread that the Hawks were willing to match almost any offer he received. Or maybe it simply did not exist.
At any rate, whenever the Hawks do exit the playoffs – which, hopefully, won’t be for another few weeks yet – you can bet Collins’ name will be at the forefront of trade talks once again.