Two days before the NBA trade deadline, John Collins made it clear.
The longest-tenured Hawk wants to stay put.
“I want to stay,” Collins said Tuesday. “I want my flowers here in Atlanta. I want to be true to Atlanta for my entire career, as corny or cheesy as it may sound to whoever. As a basketball player, as someone who takes pride in their job, me being drafted in the organization, and me living here, becoming a man and living my life in the NBA as a Hawk, it means something to me.
“It might not mean a lot to other people, but I want to be here. I want my future to be here. I want to think about my future here, but as I said, the reality of the situation is it’s not always, stuff doesn’t always go the way I want it to, and all I can do to make sure that my future is as good as it can be is to make sure that I’m the best player I can be, and wake up every day and figure it out.”
Collins, who the Hawks drafted 19th overall in 2017, had hoped to figure out an extension with the Hawks before this season, his fourth in the NBA. He spoke about not wanting to enter a “contract year” and the strain that comes with it. But, the two sides couldn’t come to an agreement, and Collins will be a restricted free agent after this season, if he’s still with the team.
There’s another possibility, which is that Collins could be traded before the deadline (which arrives at 3 p.m. Thursday). He’s certainly sought after by several teams, and his name has come up in many rumored potential trade scenarios.
That’s the nature of the business, Collins knows.
“It was something that I wanted to figure out earlier in the year,” Collins said of his long-term future with the franchise. “Obviously right now, we’re still trying to figure it out from both ends, try to make something concrete of what is going to happen. Obviously I’m not 100% sure yet, as I would like to be, but my time here has been the same, nothing has changed, so for me, it’s just continuing to be me inside the organization and as I said before try not to think about it too much.”
Collins is averaging 18.3 points and 7.8 rebounds per game (slightly down from the 21.6 points and 10.1 rebounds he averaged last season, but that was before the Hawks added Clint Capela and overall improved the roster this year). He’s shooting 37.4% from 3-point range.
He hasn’t risen to the All-Star level yet, but at 23, he’s a talented offensive player and continues to develop on defense. He ranks second on the team in scoring, behind Trae Young (25.7 per game) and second in rebounds, behind Capela (14.2).
Collins said he expects to be a Hawk after the deadline, but he also said he understands it’s a business, and a lot of what happens is outside his control, outside of his play on the court.
“I expect to be, but on the other hand I also understand, as I said before, this is business,” Collins said. “I could wake up and see my phone blowing up and I could be somewhere totally different, but I do expect to be a Hawk, but as I said, I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.”
Per ESPN, Collins turned down $90 million in negotiations before this season, and Tuesday he acknowledged that he had bet on himself this season.
Although Collins has mentioned multiple times he feels like he should be in the conversation for a max deal, he said that’s not the only offer he would accept.
“We were at a misunderstanding of what we thought was going to be agreed upon, and we obviously decided to postpone our decision-making, but for me, there wasn’t necessarily a single number,” Collins said. “There has never been a single number. I never said ‘I need a max,’ or I never said ‘I’m only taking a max,’ all I said was I feel like with my play and what I’ve done I feel like I should be in max contention, or I should be in the caliber, realm of guys, who do what I do on the court, and that’s all I said. There was no, ‘Oh, I need a five-year max,’ this and that, I never said any of that.
“... I feel like a lot of people got that messed up. A lot of people are like ‘Oh, he’s only taking a max,’ or ‘Oh, he’s only this or only that,’ I never said I’m only doing anything, I just said for what I’ve done, and for my sacrifices and my dedication to this organization, I feel like I’m worth more than what was brought to me at the table, and I feel like I wanted to bet on myself and prove it.”
For Collins, it’s tough to juggle the larger situation with his contract and future with his day-to-day responsibilities with the team, with games and practices obviously still going on. So, he tries to take that stress out on the court.
“I feel like I do a good job of being able to separate them, but damn right it’s not easy to go through,” Collins said. “I want to be able to just focus on my relationship with the guys and understanding that my long-term future here is secure, but obviously that situation didn’t happen as we all thought it would so for me it’s been tough, just going through the year, being uncertain of everything really, of what’s going to happen with my situation.
“So like I said it’s something that I’ve tried to take my feelings our or my emotions out on the court with and sort of just try to use it as an outlet and that’s really all I can do at this point. A lot of this stuff is out of my control, it drives me crazy, but as I said I have to figure out a way to be constructive and push through.”
There may be a good chance Collins stays with the Hawks, as he’s a good fit on the team which has shown improvement under interim coach Nate McMillan, a team that is hoping to make the playoffs this season. But it’s hard to say, as another team could make an offer that general manager Travis Schlenk thinks will help the Hawks in the long-run.
Collins has been a huge part of the team’s rebuilding process since Schlenk’s arrival.
On if the front office values Collins the way he wants to be valued, Collins said this: “I definitely feel like there’s always going to be a gap in what I feel like should happen and what they feel like should happen, but I definitely feel like the way I’ve been treated, you know, had some different takes on it, there’s been a lot of ups and downs in my career thus far in terms of just having to deal with a lot of things mentally as a young player. So for me, it’s an interesting question. For me, I feel like it’s really all up to what you desire and value on the court and how you gauge that and look at me going forward in the future.
“I feel like I go out there and play my heart out, play my butt off on the court every night, and that decision is to be made on that end for me, it’s to be proven on the court. So I feel like all I can do is go out there and prove it, basketball-wise.”
Although his contract situation is highly publicized right now, Collins said being with the Hawks means a lot to him, especially since this is where he was drafted.
“It means a lot, regardless of whatever people want to say about my situation with the Hawks, being drafted to somewhere, having my first experiences in the NBA being the city of Atlanta, it really means something to me,” Collins said.
“I always feel like there’s tremendous value or there’s tremendous pride in being on one team, staying on one team and giving your all to an organization, and that’s something that’s been my dream as a young boy to do so. So it means a lot to me, regardless of whatever happens. I love being a Hawk.”
