Heading into Thursday’s trade deadline, there were ample rumors swirling about teams vying for the Hawks’ talented young power forward John Collins.
Collins’ future with the team had been debated for a while, since he and the Hawks couldn’t reach an agreement for an extension heading into the season.
Although general manager Travis Schlenk has acknowledged that teams had inquired about Collins, he said Friday that the Hawks never had any “serious conversations” regarding trading Collins.
“There’s been a ton of speculation out there all along about John, since the negotiations didn’t get finalized last year, on his extension,” Schlenk said. “But we’ve been steadfast that we view John as a big part of our team, a big part of our franchise and like with all our players, we do our due diligence to see what their value is, but I don’t think that you’ve ever heard myself or anybody else in the Hawks organization say that we don’t place great value on John. We do. We never had any serious conversations, with any team, about moving him this year.”
Collins will be a restricted free agent after this season, which means the Hawks will be able to match teams’ offers.
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