After long bouts of speculation, the Atlanta Hawks finally traded John Collins. The Hawks sent the former first-round pick to the Utah Jazz in a trade that also sent Rudy Gay to Atlanta. A Utah second-round pick will also go to the Hawks.
“Breaking: The Hawks are finalizing a trade to send John Collins to the Jazz for Rudy Gay and a future second-round pick, sources tell @wojespn,” ESPN tweeted.
Breaking: The Hawks are finalizing a trade to send John Collins to the Jazz for Rudy Gay and a future second-round pick, sources tell @wojespn. pic.twitter.com/A4v3X5HBsO
— ESPN (@espn) June 26, 2023
Collins has been a rumored trade piece for the Hawks for some time. However, Atlanta never had the right pieces to put a deal in motion, so the former Wake Forest standout remained in town. But that all has seemingly changed now.
Last season, Collins played in 71 games and averaged 13.1 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. In his career, he’s logged 364 games and averaged 15.8 points and 8.0 rebounds per game. He shot 35.6 percent from 3 for his career but went 29.2 percent from beyond the arc last season. It’s been a disappointing trend as he’s seen declines in 3-point shooting in each of the last three seasons after shooting 40.1 percent in 41 games in the 2019-20 season.
Meanwhile, Gay is one of the oldest active players in the league, so his run continues in the Association. Next season will be his 18th in the NBA after the Memphis Grizzlies drafted him in the 2006 NBA Draft.
The NBA world reacted to the trade news.
John Collins never hearing a Hawks trade rumor again pic.twitter.com/s3bVYWwlwv
— RingerNBA (@ringernba) June 26, 2023
This John Collins trade finally happening after years of speculation is gonna have the motivational IG pages going crazy with messages about "perseverance in the face of multiple obstacles" https://t.co/cCTt51XcZd
— Jeff Johnson (@JeffJSays) June 26, 2023
Biggest takeaway is.. buddy it does not feel like John Collins is 25 years old.. it def feels like he been in trade rumors for 25 years tho https://t.co/MnTMe035Jl
— Kev (@klew24) June 26, 2023
oh boy. i did not think the series final of john collins trade rumors would be RG and a pick. I like the move for Utah, especially with how they used their bigs last year. Could be a nice landing spot for Collins. https://t.co/cI6AS3HGLO
— Steve Jones Jr. (@stevejones20) June 26, 2023
[ESPN]
About Chris Novak
Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022