It’s finally happening.
In recent years, the rumored John Collins has been a fixture in the NBA’s trade talks over the deadline and opening of free agency. Finally, after years of wondering if the Hawks family would finally take him in, it seems to be happening. The Hawks are finalizing a deal to send Collins to the Utah Jazz in exchange for Rudy Gay and a second-round pick.
finally . . .
I can confirm that the Hawks have traded Jazz’s John Collins for 36-year-old Rudy Gaye and a future pick for the second round. Hawks dumping money. Collins has approximately $52 million left on his contract, plus a player option worth $26.58 million in 2025-26.– Jeff Schultz (@JeffSchultzATL) June 26, 2023
That’s a crazy low return for someone like Collins, and the deal, first reported by ESPN, looks like a jazz robbery. Let’s break out the red ink and throw some scores on this trade.
Utah Jazz acquires John Collins
Jazz Collins has been on their radar for a while now. And buying it for almost nothing that has short-term or long-term value in return is a huge win.
Collins doesn’t come off as a veteran that can’t be missed. He had one of the worst seasons of his career this past season, scoring the lowest points per game since his rookie campaign, lowest rebounding average of his career and having the worst shooting season of his career. In his first five seasons, he hit 55.9% on his shots and 37.6% on his three-pointers. That fell to 50.8 percent and 29.2 percent, respectively, last season. His defense has been suspect for many years and may have peaked two years ago.
With that said, Collins is a great runner and has been one of the best big league players in the past few seasons. He can still jump out of the gym and put someone on a poster, YouTube spotlight, Instagram reel, TikTok video, or whatever we call it these days. The Jazz hope Collins’ losing season isn’t a sign of what’s to come. He really struggled when the Falcons moved away from him as one of their primary options behind Trae Young. He took a backseat in a lot of ways, and his overall playing and accuracy affected.
The Jazz just saw Lauri Markkanen have his best season and become an All-Star and Most Improved Player by changing the landscape to Utah. Perhaps this is too ambitious for Collins, but there is plenty of room for him to grow. The Jazz should be able to play Markkanen, Collins and Walker Kessler together at the same time. Markkanen has shown during his time at Cleveland that he can play the winger/small forward, and that should make Collins’ transition a lot easier. It gives Jazz a lot of front-end combos they can take advantage of.
Things can get a little crowded with rookie Taylor Hendrix in the mix, but the Jazz have no problem getting creative with their line-ups. Overall, Utah thought there was something off with Collins for years. As Jazz continued to grow and retool, it cost them almost nothing to bring it into the mix.
Grade: a
The Atlanta Hawks grabbed Rudy Gay and won in the second round
I will admit that I am not the biggest believer in Collins as a difference maker. He’s a crazy athlete with a solid skill set, but I never felt he would be the number one force forward for a really great team. And the Hawks seem to have felt similarly about Collins for years because he’s always been rumored to be on the trade block. Even before he joined his restricted free agency in 2021, the Falcons were trying to move him to get something valuable and avoid signing him for the big bucks.
The annual tradition of being considered for trading never bore fruit, and he ended up with the Hawks in the summer of 2021 for five years and $125 million. Two years into the decade, the best they could do for him was 36-year-old Rudy Gay and a second-round pick? This can’t be an appropriate value, whether you believe Collins or not.
This is a terrible job of maximizing value for the player who must remain an asset. This seems like the first step to many for Atlanta due to the lack of return. The Hawks will create a trade exception with the gap in Collins’ salary ($25.3 million) and Jay’s ($6.4 million) salary figure. This can help them take steps at some point. It also helps ease the pain of incoming luxury tax penalties, as the Hawks were just over $1 million under the luxury tax last season.
Still, that sounds like a poor payroll. We’ll see how much this list moves in the coming weeks. Clint Capela, De’Andre Hunter, and several other unnamed Trae Young can all be moved. Even for a payroll dump, Collins’ deal is all wrong on its own. We’ll have to see what’s next.
Grade: F+
(Photo by John Collins and Colin Sexton: Alex Goodlett/Getty Images)