At first glance, this trade may not make a ton of sense for a player of John Collins’ caliber.
We’re talking about a 25-year-old forward who can score, block a shot per game, rebound and occasionally hit a three pointer. The return there should be fairly big, right?
Except … not so much in this deal that broke on Monday involving the player with a lot of money left of his contract. And we’ll explain why as we grade the trade that sent Collins to the Utah Jazz, giving the rebuilding team another young piece to build around.
Let’s hand out some grades:
The details
Per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski:
Jazz get: John Collins
Hawks get: Rudy Gay, future second-round pick
Utah Jazz
This is an interesting one for me. The Jazz have Lauri Markkanen and Collin Sexton to build around, along with Walker Kessler and a strong 2023 draft class.
So why grab Collins’ large contract for relatively nothing?
First off, it’s a good idea to acquire a young player with the kind of talent Collins has. He could either blossom further or become an enticing trade piece. You could also file this under “rebuilding team takes on a bad contract to get extra assets.”
Either way: This is a solid move for a rebuilding team. I like it.
GRADE: B+
Atlanta Hawks
As our Mike Sykes wrote last week: Future draft picks have become HUGE now that the CBA rewards being smart financially and getting under the new cap rules.
The same goes for expiring deals (good for teams who are squeezed) and getting rid of big, bad contracts:
The Atlanta trade is an example of the new CBA.
Moving money for long term relief that helps build out a roster.
The unintended consequences is that free agents now get squeezed because $25M of cap space in Utah is gone.
— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) June 26, 2023
There you have it. This is a team that has Trae Young, Clint Capela, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Dejounte Murray and De’Andre Hunter getting paid right now. They need the help and didn’t need to get much back for the salary relief. Welcome to a new NBA era!
GRADE: A-
