John Collins has never shied away from wanting to be a 20-and-10 player, at the least.
So he cracked a smile when he heard the numbers: Over the past seven games, he’s averaged 24.3 points and 12 rebounds, and he’s strung together four consecutive double-doubles.
“Hey, that sounds nice,” Collins said Tuesday at practice.
The third-year power forward (who the Hawks can utilize as a small-ball center) has tallied 13 double-doubles and is averaging 19.4 points and 10.2 rebounds in 25 games played, shooting 55.9% from the field and 35.6% from 3-point range.
On a young, rebuilding team, that steadiness has been huge for the Hawks.
“I think he’s playing with a tremendous amount of effort,” Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce said after Monday’s loss to Boston, when Collins put up 22 points and 11 rebounds. “He’s been very active. I think it’s pretty much a double-double every game and the efficiency in terms of the shots he’s taking are right around the basket, or some throwback 3’s where he’s wide open. Obviously the ball going in helps.”
Despite some trade buzz surrounding his name, with the deadline approaching Feb. 6, it's highly unlikely the Hawks would move a member of their young core (including Collins, Trae Young, Kevin Huerter, De'Andre Hunter and Cam Reddish) at the deadline, according to a person with knowledge of the situation, as the franchise rebuilds.
Collins' role could shift if the Hawks continue targeting Houston center Clint Capela, as ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski has reported. Regardless, it's likely he'll get to keep building on what he's already done in a small sample size this season for the Hawks. (On Nov. 5, he was suspended for 25 games after violating the terms of the NBA/NBPA anti-drug program.)
The biggest reason for his production as of late, per Collins, is simply comfort level after coming back from suspension. Overall, the trio of Collins, Young and Huerter have still played only 344 minutes together across 20 games.
“I feel like that’s really the biggest thing, getting back into a rhythm,” Collins said. “I feel like I haven’t really been able to find a rhythm yet, this year. It’s been a really crazy year for myself. I feel like now I have some sort of normality, on a game-to-game basis I know what I’m going to get, or at least what I’m trying to do.”
Collins, known as a standout rim-runner, has been more active on defense this season and has added 1.8 blocks per game compared with 0.6 last season.
“He’s just finding his groove, getting rolling finishing at the rim,” Huerter said. “We’re finding him, I think, especially with Jeff (Teague) and Trae getting downhill a lot and the other guys, Brandon (Goodwin), getting downhill. A lot of things are opening up. Hopefully the more shots I make, it can open a lot of things up for him, too. But he’s playing with a lot of energy. He’s protecting the rim for us, and he’s done a great job the last couple games.”
The 25 games that Collins missed overlapped with injuries to Huerter, so you can’t attribute the Hawks’ woeful 4-21 record over that span solely to his absence. With Collins, the Hawks (13-38 overall) are 9-17 this season.
Though that’s still not a great record, and hard to reconcile when having the individual success he’s had recently, Collins takes solace in the growth the team has shown so far.
“Obviously, you want to come away with a ‘W’ instead of seeing an ‘L’ every other night, or as many times as young, developing teams do,” Collins said. “But I feel like the greatest part of it is you get to go back and see the growth and the leaps and strides made, and I feel like that’s the way you have to look at it and be happy with that.”
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