A last-second John Collins blockbuster the Boston Celtics should consider

It’s finally here, Boston Celtics fans — the 2022 NBA trade deadline.

All season long, we’ve been hearing whispers about how President of Basketball Operations, Brad Stevens, is looking to bolster the surrounding talent pool around the team’s star duo, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, and the preferred method of doing so would be to bring on a top-flight talent to serve as a third star right alongside them within the rotation.

In all likelihood, with the assets that they have at their disposal, the C’s will not be able to go about and acquire any of the already-established stars that remain available, as they are unequivocally out of Stevens’ price range, which, in turn, means that should they still be interested in bringing on a potential third-piece to the puzzle, they’ll need to look towards bringing on players who, though may not technically be stars, could be argued as being on the cusp of becoming one.

Across the league, there are plenty of players rumored to be on the block that are found within this aforementioned status level, and perhaps the most intriguing individual of them all — at least for the Boston Celtics — is Atlanta Hawks big man, John Collins.

Still just 25-years-old, the power forward has already managed to prove himself to be one of the best all-around players at his respective position.

With his impressive ability to flush it home at the rim just as easily as he can stroke it from long range, Collins is an inarguable nightmare on the offensive side of the ball and, despite seeing the second-lowest usage rating of his career (a rather significant reason for his rumored displeasure with Atlanta and, in turn, the rumblings of him potentially be traded), the talented youngster is boasting stellar per-game averages of 17 points, eight rebounds, and 1.1 blocks on 54 percent shooting from the floor and 39.5 percent shooting from deep.

We believe that inserting Collins’ style of play into Boston’s starting four spot could go on to compliment the Jays and, frankly, the rest of the team quite nicely, which is why we wouldn’t be all that surprised if, during the dwindling hours leading up to today’s deadline, we see the front office pursuing a trade with the Hawks to acquire him and, should this happen, we believe this could be a package that could get a deal done:

Now yes, we’ve already discussed the concept of seeing Marcus Smart being used in a trade for John Collins in the past and, even when it was during a time in which he was struggling mightily, we still had some second-guess feelings present themselves for, after all, he’s been the heart and soul of Boston Celtics basketball essentially since he was drafted back in 2014.

However, be it during his slump or his recent surge, ultimately the consensus opinion is that such a move could wind up being truly beneficial, not just for the C’s, but for the Hawks as well.

Perhaps Atlanta’s two biggest problems this season has been found on the defensive side of the ball, particularly when it comes to their perimeter defense, and within the play-making department outside of the likes of Trae Young.

Because of this, it likely would be an intelligent move for the Hawks to try and get some much-needed backcourt assistance alongside their star point guard to mask these very real issues, and what potential option would be smarter for them to pursue than Marcus Smart?

Making a career for himself as being considered one of the best defenders in the NBA today, the Boston Celtics guard would automatically be able to step in and serve as a true bulldog on the less glamorous side of the ball and, in turn, be able to take on the more challenging opposing guard assignments, thus giving Young (a defensive liability) a major break and, as a result, allow him to save his energy for offensive possessions.

On top of this, though Smart may not be a truly reliable scoring option (boasts career averages of just 10.3 points per game on 38 percent shooting from the field), he’s a more than willing distributor (averages 5.4 dimes per 75 possessions for his career) which, as we alluded to earlier, is something Atlanta could use more than another bucket getter.

For the shamrocks, this proposed deal sees the veteran guard heading outbound (yes, perhaps a tough pill to swallow) along with Al Horford, Aaron Nesmith, and a future first-round pick, but sees Collins coming back to Eastern Massachusetts to fill in as a potentially perfect complement to Tatum and Brown at power forward and, in addition, the C’s also get veteran wing, Danilo Gallinari.

The Hawks are reportedly already interested in parting ways with the veteran forward this year and are even rumored to be engaging with one of Boston’s Atlantic Division rivals to have him be shipped out and, in all likelihood, serve as a much-needed scoring punch off the pine.

It just so happens that the C’s, too, could use for an extra offensive weapon within their second unit and, though he’s not a star by any means, acquiring Gallinari could easily wind up helping them on this front (averaging 16.3 points per 75 possessions this year on 39 percent shooting from deep) while also boosting the depth behind Tatum and Brown and, just to be petty, complicate their rival’s trade plans a bit.

In summation, the struggling Atlanta Hawks execute a deal that has a main draw of helping them shore up their two weakest areas within the rotation while the surging Boston Celtics bring aboard a legitimate third foundational piece in John Collins to formulate a young and menacing Big-3 alongside Tatum and Brown for years to come.

This deal would certainly be a deadline banger and, at the very least, something similar should be considered by both parties.