The difference between Collins as compared to Allen, Wagner and Boucher. Collins can score the ball consistently, every game.
We need more scoring. Despite having two stars, our offense is below average. As we learned last year, our team can accommodate three, or even four, primary scorers.
Hayward kept everyone involved on offense, hence he kept everyone happy. The way I see it, Collins only cares about his own shots.
Imo, we need more passing and shooting, not more scoring. An off-ball specialist can give us a consistent offensive boost and he wouldn't be taking shots away from the Jays. For instance, Seth Curry, Duncan Robinson, Gary Trent Jr, Joe Harris, Otto Porter (he'd be my ideal buyout candidate), prime JJ Redick/Kyle Korver etc. Not saying these guys are available. Just listing some names off the top of my head. Hopefully, Nesmith will make that list one day.
I'd also be happy with a point forward in the mold of Hayward or Joe Ingles, but this type of players are hard to find.
Boston needs talent. The team as currently constructed just doesn't have enough to ever really and truly compete for a title. Adding Collins (and then keeping him) goes a very long way to bridging the talent gap needed for Boston to be an actual and realistic contender.
Boston had more than enough talent in 2018/19, yet we were a dysfunctional team. Just because we need talent, it doesn't mean we should go after whomever talented player might become available. I mean, it's not like we are building from scratch. We already got (at least) 2 building blocks in Tatum and Brown. Imo, we gotta build the team around them. Basketball-wise, I believe Collins would be a bad fit next to the Jays. At the same time, he's about to become overpaid. I wouldn't want us to trade for him.
I just don’t get the “bad fit” argument. An athletic PF who can score from every level and who is a good rebounder and decent defender would be like manna from heaven.
We have two flaws on offense: lack of ball movement, and the ability to score when jumpers aren’t falling. Collins take some of the burden off of Marcus and Kemba, allowing them to focus more on distribution than scoring. More importantly, he is a dominant player at scoring inside buckets, while also providing excellent spacing. Teams couldn’t double off of him, and he’d force mismatches both inside and on the perimeter.
Sure, we also need role players, but let’s lock down an elite core first.
I expanded on this in my previous posts. Long story short, all 3 of Tatum, Brown and Collins are score-first players. Collins would have to adjust in a complementary role behind the Jays. With this in mind, imo we'd be better off targeting an off-ball specialist who'd be perfectly happy to play 3rd fiddle on offense. Imo, Collins would be a bad fit in our defensive system as well. He ain't got the lateral quickness to switch ball screens on the perimeter.
Collins doesn't need to adjust at all. He mainly scores being the roll/pop man, cutter or spot up shooter with the occasional post up and putback - he doesn't even have enough isolation possessions to have isolation tracking data so far this season. He would be a perfect target man for our stars who are all tasked to create rather than being a traditional low post stud who mucks up everything, he is exactly the off-ball specialist you're pining for.
He can definitely switch ball screens on the perimeter. He's no Kevin Garnett out there, but he can swivel his hips and stay with perimeter players quite well from what I've seen of him.
Of course he'd have to adjust. He's reportedly uneasy about playing 2nd fiddle in Atlanta (maybe even 3rd fiddle till Hunter got injured). He'd definitely have to play 3rd fiddle in Boston.
- He's a mediocre cutter (he ranks in the 57th percentile this season).
- He's a below average spot up shooter (37th percentile this season, 41st percentile last season). This is important assuming he'd be feeding off of Tatum/Kemba/Smart/Brown on offense.
- He's a nice finisher in the pick n roll/pop (although his PnR numbers are flat out average this season).
Chances are he'll command max money during the offseason. Do you think he's worth the max? Cause if he isn't, then he'll be a negative trade asset a year from now. Why on earth would we wanna sacrifice valuable assets for the right to overpay Collins?
Agree to disagree on his defense. Here's a quote from CBS:
"I don’t have the five positions anymore. It may be as simple as three positions now, where you’re either a ball-handler, a wing or a big. It's really important. We've become more versatile as the years have gone on."Collins is a big. He ain't got the lateral quickness to stay in front of explosive (s)wings. Problem is, he ain't tall/long enough to defend opposing Centers either. At the same time, he's an average PnR defender. He allows 1.00 PPP when defending the PnR this season, which ranks in the 43rd percentile. Not sure what he brings to the table on the defensive side of the ball.
If you ask me, no matter where we play him, we'd end up with a dysfunctional defensive unit. My guess is we'd use him alongside a second big (let's say Theis). The C's are built around 2 switchable (s)wings in Tatum and Brown. We want to maximize their effectiveness on both sides of the ball, hence we run a switch-heavy defensive scheme. Wouldn't want us to use 2 bigs at the same time.
Topic: Shams Says John Collins Is Obtainable... (Read 17494 times)