Before he signed a contract extension with the Atlanta Hawks, the ensuing trade deadline, and even to this day, John Collins’ name has been in a numerous amount of trade rumors. However, even after two and a half seasons of being involved in every single Atlanta trade rumor the Hawks’ power forward out of Wake Forest remains with the team.
However, Hawks reporter for Sports Illustrated, Pat Benson Jr., believes that a Collins trade is inevitable this season and he explained why Tuesday night on The Jon Chuckery Show.
Jon Chuckery asked Benson if he thinks the Hawks will make a trade deadline move that will only include Bogdan Bogdanovic and/or John Collins, or if they could move some other guys as well. Pat answered by basically saying that there could be some guys at the end of the bench that get moved as contract-filler moves, but the wait may be over in terms of Collins.
“The big move I expect is I think this will finally be the time that Atlanta trades John Collins," Benson said. “Here in the next week or so I’m very confident John Collins finally gets traded, and you know like you I think he performs pretty well. I don’t think his contract is all that bad, and I don’t know what Atlanta is going to be able to get in return that’s going to be a better fit, but they are dead set on moving him at the trade deadline, that’s going to happen.”
It will be pretty ironic if this is in fact the year Collins is finally traded because this has been the year that the trade rumors have been the quietest. Despite the Hawks and Jazz allegedly being engaged in trade talks earlier this season that reportedly ended in the Hawks turning down a counter offer from Utah and the New Orleans Pelicans just getting into preliminary talks with the Hawks for the Dunkin' Deacon, there has been no real trade buzz around the name of John Collins.
It’s been quiet even to the point where Bleacher Report’s Chris B. Haynes reported that “Atlanta is fielding offers for Collins but is comfortable keeping him on the roster past the trade deadline if the right move does not materialize.”
It is just very interesting to hear Benson be so confident in his statement about Collins being moved when it seems like if there was any year Collins could possibly feel a little more secure in the thought of not being traded, this would be the year.
You have to think eventually the Collins trade rumors have to stop, whether it’s because he finally gets traded, or because the Hawks maybe make it clear that they are just going to keep him. But even though the trade rumors have seemingly softened this season it doesn’t feel like the latter will ever happen. So when Benson says "they are dead set on moving him at the trade deadline, that’s going to happen.” It makes you feel like Collins' days as in Atlanta really could be numbered.
