Atlanta Hawks big man John Collins reportedly turned down a $90 million extension with the hopes of landing something closer to a max deal, ESPN's Briand Windhorst revealed on the “The Hoop Collective” podcast.
Instead of committing to the Hawks, Collins will reportedly seek to raise his value before entering restricted free agency in the summer of 2021.
“John Collins, from what I understand, was offered a strong contract by the the Hawks,” Windhorst said, via Hoops Hype. “I heard he was offered an excess of $90 million. Now who knows what the guarantees were and all that stuff…but John Collins was seeking something at or near the max and he stuck to his guns.”
For what it's worth, John Collins has previously expressed his desire to earn a max deal after his rookie contract expires.
Collins, 23, has steadily improved each season in Atlanta, though he has been limited by injuries throughout his young career. His points per game have increased from 10.5 to 19.5 to 21.6, while his rebounding went up from 7.3 to 8.6 to 10.1 per game in 2019-20.
In 41 games for the Hawks last season, the 6-foot-9 forward took a career-high 3.6 triples per game at a 40.1 percent clip.
Collins, a sneaky high-flyer, made strides as a rim protector in 2019-20, enabling him to spend more time as a small-ball 5.
JOHN COLLINS ON YA HEAD pic.twitter.com/TDUlPRKLuL
— Bally Sports: Hawks (@HawksOnBally) December 24, 2020
Collins is in the final year of his rookie deal, which will pay him roughly $4.1 million. He was a notable omission from the slew of players to re-up before the Dec. 21 deadline for rookie scale extensions.
After inking Bogdan Bogdanovic, Rajon Rondo, and Danilo Gallinari this offseason, the Hawks likely didn't have the cap space to lock up Collins.
Atlanta drafted Collins out of Wake Forest with the no. 19 overall pick in the 2017 Draft. In one game this season—a 124-104 Atlanta win over the Chicago Bulls—Collins recorded 14 points (6-10 FG) and four rebounds in 18 minutes.
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