The Hawks have issued a qualifying offer to big man John Collins, officially making him a restricted free agent, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
That qualifying offer is a formality to ensure that Collins doesn’t become an unrestricted free agent. Although a qualifying offer technically represents a one-year contract offer, Atlanta’s 23-year-old forward/center is very unlikely to accept his QO, since he’s in line for a much more lucrative long-term deal.
Because he met the starter criteria earlier this year, Collins’ qualifying offer will be worth about $7.7MM. As long as it remains on the table, the Hawks will retain the right of first refusal, giving them the ability to match any offer sheet Collins signs.
Collins saw his numbers dip a little during the regular season in 2020/21, but he still put up an impressive 17.6 PPG and 7.4 RPG on .556/.399/.833 shooting in 63 games (29.3 MPG) and played a key role in helping Atlanta reach the Eastern Conference Finals.
Having reportedly turned down a four-year, $90MM+ extension from the Hawks last offseason, Collins figures to receive bigger offers as a restricted free agent, from Atlanta and other teams. There’s a sense that the Hawks will be reluctant to go all the way up to the max for Collins, but a rival suitor could force their hand with an aggressive offer sheet.
[RELATED: Tony Ressler: Hawks Hoping For “Fair Agreement” With John Collins]
Assuming a 3% cap increase, a team looking to lure Collins away from Atlanta this offseason could offer a four-year contract worth up to nearly $121MM.
And now
The Max is 4 year $121 million contract
OKC should offer max or near max right out of the gate.
2 of their best young players, Bazley & Roby are very similar players & Poku will also probably be best at the 4 once he matures
Collins is good but no way would I give him 4/121. You’ve got a ready made replacement in Hunter. Hawks have too many holes right now to give JC that kinda contract. Maybe a sign and trade for a 3. Biggest need is a backup point guard and another big right now.
Give up a quality Big to get a big?
Someone bigger than 6’9” to throw against Giannis and Embiid. JC didn’t look “big” against either. Well…except when he posterized Embiid.
Ready made replacement? That’s pretty glib.
Don’t underestimate his relationship with Trae and intangibles. Look at the Bucks — they paid Jrue, Gino.
Money wins championships. Can’t make it any simpler than that. Sorry.
lil D, nobody calls Giannis(Gino). Gino makes me think of a old Italian guy from New York.
What holes do the Hawks have right now lol..
Backup point guard, backup center, playmaking 3. Hunter and Gallo can handle the 4. Reddish and Huerter should at least start the season coming off the bench.
Backup pg – Kris Dunn, Brandon Goodwin, Lou Williams, Skylar Mays… Backup big – we just drafted Onyeka Okongwu #6 overall last summer… Playmaking 3 – DeAndre Hunter & Cam Reddish are both playmaking wings.. Reddish started this season as our starting 2guard, why u feel he needs to start next season on the bench? Same with Kev, he started most of the season & alot of the postseason, why is he not ready to start in ur mind?
Okongwu is out til February. Just saying, if there are no setbacks.
For this reason I would love to see the Hawks draft Charles Bassey with our 1st rd pick. I still wouldn’t call backup big a hole on the roster tho. We still have Bruno who is decent (tho I honestly hope he’s played his last game as a Hawk) & we also have Nathan Knight who is a talented youngster that should get more pt next season. We’ll have a temporary hole at backup 5 for the few months that O is out but that could easily be filled by a vet min type big. Even better would be if we could pry Naz Reid away from Minnesota in exchange for Gallo
Okongwu is out 6 months, Goodwin missed the entire playoffs with a mysterious respiratory issue, Mays only played garbage minutes for a reason, and Dunn is terrible. Actually, Dunn is worse than terrible. Watching him in the playoffs made was painful.
Lol… Kris Dunn didn’t even play but like 2gms this season, barely played at all in the postseason, wtf are u talking about? Feel free to delete that comment smh
He played 10 minutes in game 2 and 4 and gave us nothing. That’s almost 25%…or an entire quarter to those that didn’t watch, and made 1 basket the entire series. He was a walking turnover, no handles, and got smoked on defense. That’s why he didn’t play more and that’s why you need a backup point guard.
Sorry, 11 minutes in game 2 and 4 and 8 in game 5. 28 minutes total in the series. Over half a game…1 bucket. Terrible.
We have an ideal 3 already in Dre as well as plenty of other guys that can play the 3 (Cam & Kev plus Solo/TSnell if we wanna resign them). Dre might play more 4 once he’s much older & not as quick/fast. For now he’s a perfect big wing tho. We could upgrade at backup pg but that’s far from a hole on the roster. We were great this season when Trae didn’t play primarily bc Brandon Goodwin stepped up when he was called on to start. Obv we didn’t have BG for the playoffs but we still did well without Trae bc Lou was a solid backup pg for us. We can easily resign either of those guys if we want. Also we have Kris Dunn healthy next yr & he is also a solid backup pg. As far as another big I mean we currently have Clint, John, Okongwu & Gallo as our frontcourt rotation. That’s obv a very good frontcourt. The secret weapon that casuals don’t know about yet is Nathan Knight who has big time potential & may well push his way into the big man rotation next season. Adding another quality reserve guard/wing/big would def help us but it’s a huge stretch to say this Hawks team has any holes
Dude. I recognize I rooted against every other team that played the Hawks in the playoffs. Starting with the knicks, to the sixers, to the Bucks. Anyway,though I’m clearly not a fan, I respected their overachieving playoff run and recognize they played very well in adversity.
But don’t think that your roster is perfect, or that it doesn’t have any holes. Because it does have many. Especially if you aim for a contender status, which, after the great postseason they had, it’s really probable.
Right now in their stage of their careers, Okongwu as your backup C, Hunter as a “ready-made” 3-4 replacemennt for Collins, Huerter/Reddish as starting-caliber SF for a contender won’t cut it.
For all the other players you mention, Dunn has to come back, but he’s already proven he can be defensive specialist at PG, when healthy.
The rest, they have everything to prove in the league, so counting them as rotation players for a contending team is delusional.
The reason that John is gonna get a max or near max deal is bc he’s easily the best guy at his position available in free agency. He’s the guy that teams that need a 4 are all gunning for. So your suggestion is for the Hawks to let him go & replace him with someone that can do a better job than he did. Lol who is this person that’s gonna be better for us than John & how we would we acquire them?
You won’t be able to replace him but giving him 121/4 is a poor decision. Hawks got ton of young talent . Smart move for hawks is to let him move on. Or possible sign and trade…
Hunter is a 3, not a 4, and is a much better defender. Dino, who is a 3 offensively, needs to be a 4 defensively because he’s too slow to cover 3s. Atlanta needs to keep him, but more than 25M per…let him walk.
If someone signs him to a 4yr $26M deal u would let him walk??? I don’t understand how anyone could see this as a viable option tbh. The franchise has spent yrs rebuilding & adding young talent & was rewarded with a great season. The future looks extremely bright for the team & you say let the very 1st guy who earns a big contract go to another team? What would we replace him with that would keep us from regressing?
I agree they need to keep him, but not at 30 mil a season. Id rather keep Lou at 10mil and trade for a guy like Harrison Barnes at 20 than sign JC for 30. Hunter is an inch shorter than JC and played some 4 this year, he can handle it.
Also think it’s important to note that if Hunter stays healthy and Cam continues to develop the Hawks may have a pretty good long-term core right there. Of course that’s no guarantee, but the Hawks aren’t one of those contending teams who must overpay to keep someone like Collins due to a limited window of opportunity.
Not saying I wouldn’t pay Collins—I think something like 4/96 would be fair—but what you don’t want to do is potentially mess up your books this early in the process. Granted, Collins is highly unlikely to become an albatross contract like Wiggins which mitigates some of that risk.
I don’t think it’s possible for the Hawks to overpay John in this case tbh. If someone offers him the max & he accepts we have to match & keep him. That wouldn’t be overpaying him, that would be paying him exactly what he’s obviously worth. We don’t need to keep John bc our window is closing, we need to keep John bc he’s 1 of the best 4s in the league & we don’t have anybody like him that could come close to replacing him. Signing John to a max contract doesn’t mess up our books at all. Our highest paid player makes $20M/yr & has 1 guaranteed yr left on his deal
He’s not one of the best 4’s in the league. You’re clearly overvaluing the guy. 0 all star selections to his name.
He averaged 20pts 10rebs a game 2yrs in a row, shoots around 40% from trey. Was the primary defender that locked down Julius Randle in the playoffs. He’s clearly 1 of the best 4s in the game & clearly the best available in free agency. If you ever saw him play you’d know that
That’s a lie. They played zone. And Capela was always lurking. McMillan was a great defender in his day. He played on some of best D teams in NBA. His generation knows how to take a guy out. Try actually watching. Hawks aren’t ready for prime time. Collins isn’t worth the money. And Hawks will see reality next yr. No one on the Hawks scares anyone.
Not one advanced number says Collins is worth a max, or even close to one. Not sure where you’re getting that, although I get the rationale for overpaying to keep him.
And true, it doesn’t mess up the books now but it could make things harder down the line. GMs need to think about this type of stuff, especially with contenders. One key misstep could be costly in terms of being able to win a championship.
You’re right, though, that the Hawks have no obvious replacement for Collins unless they want to shift Hunter to the 4 and Cam to the 3 for the time being.
Lmao what is an “advanced number” & what magic number do u know off that determines who’s worth the max & who’s not?
Just came here to see if Sankara AKA John Collins is still making 75% of the posts on every Atlanta thread and arguing John Collins is essentially Karl Malone because “he averaged 20 & 10 two years in a row” lol.
Good to see some things haven’t changed.
Literally everything you just said is wrong.
You can’t trust any single advanced number but when none of them say he’s that good then, yes, you can collectively trust them. Of course, there’s a good chance Collins improves at least a bit from here on out so you have to factor that in.
I just find it funny that you’re using points and rebounds to justify giving him a max. Hey, maybe a team should also give Whiteside a max since he can put up 16/10/3 blocks per-36!
The SASpurs will sign him …
The Hawks will match
Mavs have brunson, josh green and either maxi or dwight powell they could offer
I love Jalen Brunson but that aint nearly enough
Wow. He’s only 23. Seems like he’s been in the league for awhile now. Collins still has untapped potential so I’d make sure to extend him. He’s part of the nucleus.
I don’t get why people are assuming there is a lot of untapped potential with Collins.
Yes, age is on his side so there’s definitely room for continued improvement. The problem for Collins is he’s already very good at the things he’s good at while also not having a clear path to improving on his current weaknesses: ball-handling, playmaking, defense, shot creation, etc. Those are either difficult areas for him to improve in several years into his career or areas where he has simply offered little hope for future growth.
Still a very good player obviously who should get paid, but I don’t see him making another leap from here on out.
It’s extremely obvious you haven’t seen John play smh. He improved by leaps & bounds this season as a defender & still has more room to grow in that area. He’s also a guy that seems like he can get a lot stronger as he ages similar to Karl Malone. If/when he gets stronger physically he may lose some athleticism but will improve overall. For some reason you think his ball handling & shot creation are weaknesses smh, again you obv haven’t seen the boy play much
Yes, he improved as a defender but some of that was Capela, some was him playing less 5, and some was his own growth. The problem for him is that he isn’t strong enough to deal with physical play and he has a smaller wingspan. Those cap his ceiling on defense.
Ditto for his frame. That’s not a frame that can add a ton more muscle. Plus, he’s been in the league 4 years already. You really think all of a sudden he’s going to put on 30lbs of muscle? That just doesn’t happen at this point in one’s career, irrelevant of whether you feel it should be possible.
“For some reason you think his ball handling & shot creation are weaknesses smh, again you obv haven’t seen the boy play much”
Good lord, you really are a homer lol. Either that or you know nothing about basketball. This line proves it. Time to check out.
He’s young enough he could develop, but to your point he’s got a long way to go to become a guy who you can give the ball to and say, “Get us a shot” down the stretch of a playoff game.
Ideally, he’s your third best player if you’re contending. Problem for Atlanta is he’s trying to get paid the rate of a second best player. It’s probably wise to match whatever he’s offer because he’s young enough that he should be movable.
But it’s still a risk. The league sours on guys quickly once they start making max money.
You’re looking at this in completely the wrong way if you’re worried about who’s the 2nd or 3rd best player & if they’re making more than the best player or whatever. The market sets the rate for all these guys. Don’t be mad that he market sets John’s value so highly. My advice would be to actually watch him play & try to better understand why his value is so high league wide. If u don’t think the John scored numerous big buckets for the Hawks in their playoff run then u clearly missed a lot. If u don’t think he’s capable of scoring big buckets for the Hawks in future playoff games then u probably don’t know basketball very well just being honest. I mean your last sentence alone just is perfect evidence of how warped your view of NBA basketball is smh. It’s YOU and people like you that sour on guys like John once they get paid. There’s a reason for that & it’s very obvious
lol
The problem with Collins is inconsistency he might have 23 then 14. He had a 0 and an 8 in the playoffs! No max player should ever score 0. His lack of one on one ability and shot creation limits his effectiveness his true ability is he plays hard and hustles he’s not great at anything he’s a 6’8 luxury player on a team that needed him more than they need him now.
I agree, 4/90 is his fair value. With playoff run bump it to 95. Other than that let him walk or do a sign and trade. They have a lot of talent coming up and 30 million eats big hunk of cap space