John Collins trade grades: High mark for Jazz; not so much for Hawks - The Athletic

It’s finally happening.

In recent years, one of the staples of NBA trade talks around the deadline and the opening of free agency has been John Collins rumors. Finally, after years of wondering if the Hawks would finally move him, it appears to be happening. The Hawks are finalizing a trade to send Collins to the Utah Jazz in exchange for Rudy Gay and a second-round pick.

Finally . . .
I can confirm the Hawks have traded John Collins to the Jazz for 36-year-old Rudy Gay and a future second-round pick. Hawks dumping money. Collins has close to $52 million left on his contract, plus a $26.58 million player option in 2025-26.

— Jeff Schultz (@JeffSchultzATL) June 26, 2023

This is a crazy low return for someone like Collins, and the deal, first reported by ESPN, feels like a steal for the Jazz. Let’s bust out the red ink and throw some grades on this trade.

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Utah Jazz acquire John Collins

The Jazz have had Collins on their radar for a while now. And acquiring him for almost nothing of short-term or long-term value in return is a major win.

Collins doesn’t come in as a can’t miss veteran. He had one of the worst seasons of his career this past season, averaging the lowest points per game since his rookie campaign and the lowest rebounding average of his career and posting the worst shooting season of his career. In the first five seasons, he made 55.9 percent of his shots and 37.6 percent of his 3-pointers. That fell to 50.8 percent and 29.2 percent, respectively, last season. His defense has been suspect for many years and probably peaked two years ago.

With that said, Collins is a great rim runner and has been one of the better pick-and-roll big men in the league the last few seasons. He can still jump out of the gym and put someone on a poster or YouTube highlight or Instagram reel or TikTok video or whatever we call it these days. The Jazz have to hope Collins’ down season wasn’t a sign of things to come. He really struggled as the Hawks went away from him as one of their primary options behind Trae Young. He took a backseat in a lot of ways, and his overall play and minutes suffered.

The Jazz just saw Lauri Markkanen have his best season and become an All-Star and Most Improved Player by changing scenery to Utah. Maybe that’s too ambitious for Collins, but there’s plenty of room for him to grow. The Jazz should be able to play Markkanen, Collins and Walker Kessler all together at the same time. Markkanen showed during his time in Cleveland that he can play the wing/small forward, and that should make the Collins transition a lot easier. It gives the Jazz a lot of frontcourt combinations they can utilize.

Things could get a little crowded with rookie Taylor Hendricks in the mix, but the Jazz have no problem getting creative with their lineups. Overall, Utah has believed there’s something there with Collins for years. As the Jazz continue to grow and retool, it cost them next to nothing to bring him into the mix.

Grade: A

Atlanta Hawks acquire Rudy Gay and a second-round pick

I will admit I’m not the biggest believer in Collins as a difference-maker. He’s crazy athletic and has a solid skill set, but I’ve never felt like he was going to be the starting power forward for a truly great team. And it’s seemed like the Hawks have felt similarly about Collins for years because he’s always rumored to be on the trade block. Even leading up to his restricted free agency in 2021, the Hawks were trying to move him for something valuable and avoid signing him for big money.

The annual tradition of looking into trading him didn’t come to fruition, and the Hawks ended up signing him in the summer of 2021 for five years and $125 million. After two years in that contract, the best they could do for him was a 36-year old Rudy Gay and a second-round pick? That can’t possibly be proper value, whether or not you believe in Collins.

This is a terrible job of maximizing value for a player who should still be an asset. This feels like the first move of many for Atlanta because of how little return there is. The Hawks will create a trade exception with the gap in Collins’ salary ($25.3 million) and Gay’s salary number ($6.4 million). That can help them make moves at some point. It also helps ease the pain of incoming luxury-tax penalties, as the Hawks were a little over $1 million under the luxury tax last season.

This still feels like even a weak salary dump. We’ll see how much of this roster gets moved in the coming weeks. Clint Capela, De’Andre Hunter and many more not named Trae Young could all be moved. Even for a salary dump, the Collins deal is a complete miss on its own. We have to see what’s next.

Grade: F+

(Photo of John Collins and Collin Sexton: Alex Goodlett / Getty Images)

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