John Collins is in a precarious position with the Atlanta Hawks. He is simultaneously one of their best players and someone that the franchise could trade away in the hopes of upgrading the roster. Shams Charania of The Athletic reported that Collins is getting upset with his role with Atlanta and the team's direction, which could to him being moved for Ben Simmons.
Chris Kirschner of The Athletic asked Collins about the report and his feelings towards the Hawks' season.
“When you read the article and go back and look at it — sometimes, the headline of the article is a lot more intriguing than what’s actually written — what I didn’t like is he took a quote from my postgame press conference and sort of created a dialogue from it talking about my usage is down. In terms of voicing it and saying something, of course, I am frustrated. We’re not doing well. You could say he’s right, but I haven’t outwardly spoken to anyone or voiced my frustration directly to my teammates. That, I feel like, gets lost a bit in the dialogue but, of course, I’m as frustrated as anyone is on this team as we’re losing and not doing as well as we should.”
Collins' frustrations with Atlanta are justified. After a deep playoff run last year, the Hawks are out of the playoff picture with a 17-22 record. Their defense as a team is putrid and their offense, while still being elite, doesn't play at a high enough pace to offset the defensive woes.
Last year, Collins expressed disappointment with the Hawks, giving the impression that the team wasn't close to being good. Atlanta flipped the script by drastically improving and winning two playoff series. History doesn't seem too imminent to repeat, though.
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