Despite finishing the 2022-2023 NBA season with a mediocre 41-41 record, the Hawks managed to secure a win over the Miami Heat in the play-in round before being dispatched by the #2-seed Boston Celtics in six games of the opening round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. Questions about the durability and toughness of the Hawks frontcourt have been persistent all season and, with some of these weaknesses exposed during the course of the series, it seems that the time has come for some of these issues to be seriously addressed.
Over the weekend, Caleb Johnson of “The Dopey Millennials” was joined by Lauren Williams, Hawks Beat Writer for the AJC, and he posed the question about what she took away from the exit interviews that the team conducted on Friday.
“I think what stood out to me was that, when I asked (Hawks GM) Landry Fields about where they see John Collins kind of fitting into this roster, he didn’t commit either way,” Lauren answered. Landry expressed that Collins has value to the team but when reading between the lines, Williams interpreted the statement as a hint that the franchise might finally move on from Collins – which might come as some sort of relief to the 25-year-old forward seeing as how he has been at the center of trade talks for the past few seasons but nothing has worked out given the non-trade friendly contract that Collins possesses.
“He’s the most likely candidate in terms of fitting into this roster long-term. We can see that Clint Capela is someone that Quin Snyder has bought into, we can see that De’Andre Hunter is someone that Quin Snyder has a lot of confidence in which leaves John Collins as kind of the odd man out.” Lauren added.
Collins is coming off his worst statistical season as a professional, outside of his rookie campaign in 2017-18, despite starting the highest number of games (71) in his six-year career. He averaged 13.1 ppg, a career-low 6.5 reb/gm and shot a miserable 29.2% from beyond the arc. With the addition of Saddiq Bey last season and the potential of AJ Griffin, Jalen Johnson and Onyeka Okongwu starting to peek through the rotation, one could assume that John Collins might need to seek greener pastures in order to get his career back on track.