Oklahoma City Thunder: 2013-14 Grades—Nick Collison
By Phil Watson
Strengths
Collison is one of those guys that every team can use, a guy who just shows up to work and does his job. He cleans up the glass, moves the ball well, doesn’t turn it over a lot and provides a lot of maturity and leadership.
He posted the best net rating on the roster in 2013-14, a plus-12.2 points per 100 possessions, and had the best assist ratio (22.8) of any player in the rotation.
His 12.2 rebounding percentage is on par with where he’s been the last four years—down from its peak of 17.9 in 2007-08—but he’s also not 27 years old anymore.
Collison’s biggest strength is that he knows exactly what he is at this point in his career. He’s a grinder who is asked to bang down low for short bursts and not hurt the ballclub with dumb mistakes and generally, that’s exactly what he does.
You won’t win because of a player such as Nick Collison, but you’re also not going to lose because of him very often, either.