With recent rumors of rifts between Atlanta Hawks studs Trae Young and John Collins, the Houdini believes the Boston Celtics should look into trading for the young power forward.
After making their way to within two games of reaching their first NBA Finals in over a decade during the 2019-20 season, the Boston Celtics find themselves red hot through the first 10 outings in 2020-21.
Despite getting off to a reletively disappointing start, the Cs are now placed in the third seed in the Eastern Conference with a record of 7-3 and are in the midst of a three-game winning streak.
What makes this all the more impressive is the fact that they are managing to do this without their franchise point guard Kemba Walker in tow.
Still, even with their successes, the Houdini believes Boston could still stand to make some moves this season to help bolster their roster and better position themselves for a run at glory.
Though Danny Ainge and co. managed to sign veteran big Tristan Thompson this offseason, through the early stages of this year’s campaign it appears the team’s frontcourt rotation could still use for some fine-tuning.
For a while now, we’ve been advocating for the Celtics to consider the possibility of pursuing the likes of fourth-year big man John Collins, who has often found his name within the trade rumor-mill.
The possibility of such a move became more realistic a few weeks ago after it was announced that he and the Atlanta Hawks failed to agree on a contract extension, thus making this the final season of his rookie deal before hitting the open market during the upcoming offseason as an unrestricted free agent.
Now, if this wasn’t enough to convince you that the 23-year-old could wind up being expendable this year, recently rumors surfaced from the Athletic that the big man and Atlanta’s franchise point guard, Trae Young, have had some personal rifts in relation to how the offense is run.
Trae Young finished with just seven points on nine FGA over 35 minutes Wednesday.
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) January 8, 2021
One Hawks player said he believed the aftermath of Tuesday’s film session – in which John Collins raised issues about the team's offense – carried over into the game. pic.twitter.com/gmKw2wlLSb
As mentioned, we’ve brought up on quite a few occasions that the Boston Celtics should consider keeping tabs on the availability of Collins, and, with these reports, it could be only a matter of time before he lands on the trading block.
Should Ainge be interested in pursuing the big man, we believe there are two trades that could entice Atlanta enough to pull the proverbial trigger:
Boston Celtics trade No. 1) A mix of picks and youth
If the Boston Celtics are hell-bent on going against their 2019-20 mold and running a two-big system, they absolutely should consider bringing on John Collins.
Though Daniel Theis’ second season in the league may have convinced you he can serve as a reliable stretch-big (converted on 39 percent of his 3s), since then he has yet to recapture this success and, through 10 games, is shooting a measly 23.8 percent from deep.
Because of this, the combo of he and Tristan Thompson has created quite a logjam down low on offense and, in turn, has negatively impacted this aspect of the C’s game.
By adding Collins into the mix, they’d be inserting a guy with a career 3-point shooting percentage of 36 percent to go along with 16.3 points, 8.8 rebounds, and a block per game which, by all accounts, would allow the Celtics to effectively run their desired big-ball lineup.
In return, the Atlanta Hawks would bring on 2019 lottery-pick Romeo Langford who, despite an injury-plagued start to his career, still has upside due to his youth and what he’s shown both during his collegiate career as well as in limited spurts with the Cs during his rookie campaign.
They’d also receive Grant Williams which would certainly be a tough pill to swallow for fans as he’s proven himself to be a favorite amongst the team’s young prospects but, if the tradeoff is landing a guy like Collins who clearly has higher upside (averaging 17.9 points and 7.5 rebounds on 55 percent shooting this season), the pain of losing the 22-year-old would likely prove to be worth it in the end.
The cherry on top, of course, would be the three future picks — two firsts, one second –, which will come in handy given Atlanta’s lack of selections over the next several seasons.
Boston Celtics trade No. 2) Aaron Nesmith joins Trae Young in Atlanta
Trading away a player so early in his career is never an easy decision to make, especially one as highly-touted as Aaron Nesmith was coming out of Vanderbilt. However, like our reasoning with trading away Grant Williams, if the trade-off is landing John Collins, it’s a conversation certainly worth having.
With this move, Trae Young would acquire yet another scorer he can dish it to and rack up his assist total, while also having a defense potential ease up on him and, in turn, make scoring even easier for the All-Star.
Tabbed by many as the best shooter in this past NBA Draft, Nesmith comes into the league after finding himself averaging 23 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.4 steals, and just under a block per game while shooting 51 percent from the field and a whopping 52 percent from deep during his final season in college.
Though he has yet to find consistent playing time in the NBA, logging minutes on just three occasions, this should not deter Atlanta from viewing the wing in high regards, as this lack of play was expected given Boston’s overabundance of talents at the same position already on the roster.
Perhaps on the Hawks, minutes could be easier to come across.
And, of course, we see Collins coming to the Boston Celtics, bolstering the team’s big-man rotation for the first time in what feels like ages.
Agree with our hypothetical trade packages? Perhaps you have another idea in mind?
Whatever the case may be, we’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter in the comments section below!