OKC Thunder: 2 potential trades to acquire John Collins
OKC Thunder trade idea No. 1 to acquire John Collins
In the first of our proposed trades, the Thunder move a talented vet with playoff experience and another vet who is on an expiring contract plus future picks.
Diving into the semantics of this trade package, each club gets something they need and something they want.
Let’s start with the obvious – – John Collins comes to Oklahoma City. His age (23 years, 143 days) and skill set directly aligns with the foundational core and timeline of the Thunder:
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: 22-years, 216 days
- Luguentz Dort: 21 years, 300 days
- Darius Bazley: 20 years, 246 days
- Hamidou Diallo: 22-years, 197 days
- Isaiah Roby: 23 years, 10 days
- Theo Maledon: 19 years, 246 days
- Aleksej Pokusevski: 19 years, 49 days
In his fourth season, Collins has established himself as one of the most talented bigs in the association. Capable of plugging in either at power forward or center his adaptability also fits with the Thunder principles of positionless basketball.
He’s a big who has the ability to stretch the court, can hit from mid-range, or punish opposing squads via pick and roll sets. He’s an excellent rebounder capable of averaging double-double efforts.
This season his rebounding has waned slightly but this is due more to the presence of Clint Capela than Collins’ inability or regression. To that end, last season prior to the integration of Capella he was one of four players to average a double-double featuring 20 or more points and 10 or more rebounds (21.6 points, 10.3 rebounds). The others?
- Giannis Antetokounmpo: 29.5 points, 13.6 rebounds
- Joel Embiid: 23 points, 11.3 rebounds
- Karl-Anthony Towns: 26.5 points, 10.8 rebounds
The Nikola’s (Jokic and Vucevic), Anthony Davis, and two others in the next slide were on the precipice of joining this quartet.
This season, the Wake Forest alum is averaging 18.1 points, 8.7 rebounds, 1.6 assists, and 1.0 blocks per game. With the Hawks’ depth upgrades Collins is playing almost three minutes less and taking almost two fewer shots per game than 2019-20.
The best shooters in the league aim for the magical percentage splits of 50-40-90 from the field, perimeter, and charity stripe. Collins isn’t far off this mark registering 54.9%, 40.4%, and 84.5%. That’s almost unheard of for a big man who isn’t named Larry Bird, Dirk Nowitzki, or Kevin Durant.
As the OKC Thunder build toward their positionless era Collins fits this scheme while offering a versatility with the lineups. Imagine the length of SGA, Bazley, Collins, and Pokusevski if he develops as projected.
Better still, the Thunder nab 6’8″ Cade Cunningham in the 2021 draft and run out a starting five of SGA, Cunningham, Dort, Bazley, and Collins!
The addition of Tony Snell gets an undesirable contract off the Hawks books and who knows – maybe a change of venue could help Snell rediscover the promise of his early career when he was projected to be a viable 3 and D option. If not, he comes off the books at year-end.
As for the Hawks, they make their superstar Young happy and acquire two players who can immediately help, gain draft capital, and a young player (Josh Green) they can develop. Tim Hardaway Jr. and Mike Muscala would both be making a homecoming of sorts. Moreover, they’d bolster the 21st ranked 3-point shooting of the Hawks.
The 2023 and 2025 first-round Thunder draft picks would include the caveat that OKC would retain the better of the options. For example in 2023 the Thunder possesses their own pick as well as the Nuggets and Heat (both 1-14 protected) and they can swap their own pick with the Clippers.
From the Mavericks perspective, they’ve already moved Hardaway Jr., to the bench and replaced him with Josh Richardson in the starting rotation. He’s in the final year of his contract which means they’d either need to pay him this offseason or let him walk to pursue another star.
He doesn’t address their needs the same way Hill would in terms of playmaking, defense reliable consistent 3-point shooting. and most importantly he brings a vast history of postseason experience.
Granted Hardaway is six years younger but a comparison of the two players on basketball reference offers strikingly similar output other than assists (advantage Hill). Yet, the one thing THJ can’t make up is experience or success in the postseason. Hardaway’s 21 postseason games pale in comparison to Hill’s 127 playoff games.
With De’Andre Hunter. the Mavs get a quality young player to develop and work with well into the future. This may be the player the Hawks are least amenable to giving up but if they want to move Collins and win now they’ll need to send one of their youngsters out and because of their salary situation Hunter makes the most sense to make the deal work. Besides, they’ll have two first-round picks and a first-round swap to ease the pain.
Finally, to complete this package a future second-round pick from the Thunder is sent to the Mavs.