It's time to evaluate John Collins, the big trade of the offseason. The Jazz got Collins for a second-round pick and Rudy Gay, a move that makes all the sense in the world to make, even now. But even though he's a huge upgrade over Gay, that's not what he's going to be graded against. No, to judge Collins is to look at what he's delivering for how much he's getting paid.
He's making $25 million per year for the rest of this season and the next two. He's someone who's supposed to be a top guy at his position but the power forward has been anything but good this year. He's got a career low scoring percentage of just 49.5%, despite a career-high conversion from three-point. From beyond the arc, he's hitting 41.5% of his shots but as he's only averaging 14.4 points per game this season, the increased conversion from deep isn't helping him any.
His rebounds are solid, pulling in 8.4 per game but his blocks have declined during the season. And if he were playing fewer minutes, that might help explain some of this but he's averaging the second most amount of minutes of his career, and yet his numbers are still down. Not only is everything down offensively but he's struggled a lot on defense, especially when Walker Kessler is on the court.
Too often Collins is out of his spot or playing too far back from his guy, and it costs him, especially with more nimble forwards who can simply drive on him for the easy bucket. Collins isn't a bad player, despite all this. He's just not the All-Star caliber starter everyone, including ourselves he could be. He's likely better off the bench as a sixth-man, and that may be the best way to optimize him.
Yet, at $25 million, the real answer is to find someone who's willing to take him in a trade, as it's unlikely he'd take being moved to the bench well.