The last few years, Hawks supporters have been tormented by speculations that John Collins will be traded throughout the offseason and just before the trade deadline.
In the end, Atlanta sent him to Utah in a straight salary dump. Strangely enough, the Jazz are already trying to trade him. According to Andy Larsen of The Salt Lake Tribune, Collins is once again up for grabs.
According to the source, John Collins, the new power forward acquisition, may be the biggest surprise on the trade market. The organization has been dissatisfied with the 26-year-old’s delayed adoption of the Jazz’s approach on both ends of the court because he has the lowest on-court/off-court splits of any rotation player on the squad. Collins has played a good role as a rebounder and shooter this season, but hasn’t contributed as much elsewhere.
It’s likely that Hawks supporters are well acquainted with Larsen’s evaluation of Collins’ performance this year. He is shooting 38.3% from beyond the arc and averaging 14.5 points and 8.6 rebounds per game, a significant increase over his previous two seasons in Atlanta.
That’s not what you would expect, though, from a $25.3 million forward who isn’t exactly succeeding in court. The difficult part of this is trying to find a suitor willing to pay Collins the $56.1 million he is owed after this season plus another two years.
When the Jazz first got him, they were hoping he would play a significant role in the reconstruction or that they could simply trade him for a profit. It might not seem as simple now as Utah thought.
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