The soap opera of John Collins’ future in Atlanta continues to keep fans waiting in anticipation for some kind of resolution.
While Collins has positioned himself as a top-tier power forward in the league when he’s healthy, averaging 17 pts/8 reb over the course of his five-year career, the noise of trade talks and possibility of moving on from the former 1st-rd draft pick has been deafening over the past two seasons.
Sirius XM NBA insider Brian Geltzeiler joined Dukes & Bell, with Mark Zinno filling in for Mike Bell, to give his thoughts on the waiting game that the Hawks seem to be playing.
When asked about the reality of John Collins being a part of the team when the season opens up in October, Brian was hesitant to answer with some certainty.
“I’m going to be 50/50 on it and I’m not being evasive.” Brian replied. “It depends upon if the Hawks, their ownership group and (Hawks President) Travis Schlenk look at getting Collins off the roster as addition by subtraction.”
While Geltzeiler recognized John’s offensive abilities, he pointed out that he was still a defensive liability and also noted that the relationship between Collins and star Trae Young was less than stellar.
“The other thing about John Collins is, it’s kind of widely known around the league, that him and Trae Young aren’t exactly character peas cooking in the same pod.” Brian added.
When he signed a five-year, $125 million extension last August, most people assumed that the Hawks were “all in” on Collins and he was going to be an important part of the roster that finished the season with a trip to the Easter Conference Finals. The obvious rift between Trae and him seems to be more of a distraction than anything else going into this season.
After suggesting a possible scenario between the Hawks and the Miami Heat, with Atlanta possibly bringing in sharp-shooter Duncan Robinson and picking up some draft picks, Brian thinks that there are still places to go for Collins but it’s becoming a question of whether the team wants to keep him around for the start of training camp or if they should move on entirely.
“Since draft week, they’ve been shopping John Collins hard…VERY hard and they haven’t found the right deal for him mostly because I think they’ve been kind of disappointed and they thought he would have more value on the open market than he does.”
