The Utah Jazz continued to clean house by trading one of the veterans and best players from last season, John Collins. Collins simply didn't fit with the roster as the team has only gotten younger, but more than that, though, he was traded because he got in the way of their tanking plans.
ESPN's Tim MacMahon revealed on The Hoop Collective Podcast that Collins' efforts had proven too good last season for Utah to want to keep him around for the tank.
“He was too damn productive last season. I don’t even remember all the injuries they came up with to make sure he didn’t play. They limited him to 40 games last year,” MacMahon said.
MacMahon elaborated further on how exactly Collins got in Utah's way this past season that justified taking such measures with him.
“He played less than half the (82-game) schedule. He played in 70+% of their wins. They didn’t win a lot, but they won too often with John Collins in the lineup, and he was a reason. They had to get rid of him. They couldn’t have him on the roster,” he said.
The Utah Jazz "had to get rid of" John Collins because he was responsible for too many of their wins, per @espn_macmahon on The Hoop Collective.
— APHoops (@APH00PS) July 9, 2025
"He was too damn productive last season. I don't even remember all the injuries they came up with to make sure he didn't play. They… pic.twitter.com/k9UOUbijyK
Of the 40 games Collins played, Utah won 12 of them. On the surface, that's not a lot. However, 12-28 is good for an almost 25-win pace. That would have been eight more than Utah wound up winning, and by doing so, that would have given them the sixth-worst record in the league.
Other statistics tell the same story, like net rating. When Collins was on the floor, Utah was a plus-12 in terms of overall net rating, per NBA.com. To give full context, the Jazz were minus-0.9 when he was on the floor and minus-12.9 when he was on the floor. In English, they were almost mediocre when he was on the floor, and downright terribler when he was off.
"Almost mediocre" was the story of the Jazz for the two previous seasons before this last one, and Utah did not want to see that again. This all played a part in why Collins was headed to Sacramento before fate intervened. When that fell apart, Utah had no choice but to keep him on the sidelines.
His impressive play is what the Jazz didn't want to risk having this upcoming season, and why the Los Angeles Clippers should be very excited about what he can do for them.
Collins truly flipped the script in Utah
It's amazing to think that around this time a year ago, nobody was saying this about Collins. Back then, the narrative was that Utah had one of the league's worst contracts on its books. Even more shocking was that it didn't take long for Collins to re-establish how good he was last season.
That's why it didn't take that long for the Jazz to have him spend half the season on the bench. It is a shame that Utah didn't see this version of Collins at first when they acquired him in 2023. That could have changed a lot on where they were going, but because it was xclear Utah's best route was to go younger, they traded him the first chance they got.
In the end, the Jazz shouldn't be too down about what happened with Collins. He may not have been what they wanted at first, but at least they got to see the best season he's had in years. Much like Collin Sexton and Jordan Clarkson, he'll get to showcase himself on a team that needs what he can do.