John Collins – Atlanta Hawks
After a great, breakout season last year, John Collins has continued to prove he is one of the better, younger players in the entire league, especially given all the talent on this Hawks roster this year. His production and numbers have slightly declined this year due to there being more scoring options on the Hawks, but overall, Collins is a great power-forward.
While Atlanta would rather keep John Collins than trading him, they have taken calls for him over the last few weeks and the Timberwolves have been one of the teams interested in the young forward. The only catch for Minnesota about trading for Collins though is that the Hawks reportedly want Malik Beasley and a first-round pick.
Beasley was having a breakout year before being suspended and looks to be a key player for the Timberwolves moving forward and Minnesota is already without their 2021 first-round pick, as they traded that to the Warriors when they acquired D’Angelo Russell, so they may not be too keen on trading yet another first-round pick.
Overall though, with the Timberwolves being a young and athletic team, John Collins not only fits this mold, but he brings a new dynamic to this team. Towns would not have all the attention solely on him due to Collins, Russell and Beasley all being scoring threats and they would finally have two legit low-post threats they can rely on.
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After declining a $90M contract extension this past offseason, Collins’ future in Atlanta is very much up-in-the-air and if they decide not to trade him at the trade deadline this season, the Timberwolves could be very much in play to acquire John Collins via a sign-and-trade next offseason.
If Minnesota truly wants to go after the best young talent available, then trading for John Collins is a “no-brainer” move for them. Malik Beasley has been great, but parting ways with him to upgrade their frontcourt play and get an emerging star talent in Collins could make a ton of sense.
