Portland Trail Blazers rookie, Zach Collins, was a guest on a local radio show in Portland. He spent about 10 minutes talking about his experience in the NBA so far.
The Portland Trail Blazers traded for the rights to Zach Collins in last summer’s NBA draft.
Collins spent one season at Gonzaga University before he declared for the NBA Draft.
In his one season at Gonzaga, Collins averaged 10.0 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks per game.
He impressed NBA scouts with a dominant NCAA tournament as the Zags made it all the way to the championship game, boosting his draft stock in the process.
Collins has been playing meaningful minutes for the Blazers since early December and has been improving faster than the organization might have expected.
Because Collins has played so well, he forced his way into the rotation. That made it easier for the Blazers to trade Noah Vonleh to the Chicago Bulls.
This season, Collins has averaged 4.0 points, 3.3 rebounds, 0.8 assists and 0.5 blocks in 15.2 minutes per game.
Not everything Collins does shows up on the stat sheet. He contests shots at the rim, makes excellent passes, spaces the floor with this shooting, can score in the post, fights for rebounds on both ends of the floor and plays hard.
His stats are not eye-popping, but for only being 20 years old, he does a lot of things well and earned his playing time. Portland is going to be patient with Collins, but it still has high expectations for him to be an impactful player.
During the NBA All-Star break and a snow day in Portland, Collins appeared on a radio show called “The Bald-faced truth with John Canzano.”
During the interview, Collins gave fans a chance to know him off the court. For example, Collins shared what he does on the road as a 20-year-old rookie and mentioned that teammate C.J. McCollum turned him onto the show Peaky Blinders, which he finished quickly. Collins has now switched his focus to The Office, getting away from hour-long shows. The rookie says he also takes his Xbox on the road sometimes and plays NBA 2K online with his friends back home.
You can listen to the full podcast below, but we’ve also transcribed some of the highlights for you.
What (music) do you listen to, what’s on your mix on your phone?
"“A lot of Drake, a lot of Kahlib, his last album made me a fan. Eminem, Green Day. I do like some country songs.”"
You still feel like a rookie or are you getting comfortable?
"“You know I’m reminded every day I’m a rookie because that’s my name around the locker room. So in that sense, yeah I still feel like a rookie. On the court, I’ve definitely gotten more comfortable, definitely don’t feel like a rookie in that sense of the word, but I definitely feel like I’ve gotten more comfortable.”"
Now I’ve heard in the past that some of the rookies get hazed pretty hard, how far does it (hazing) go?
"“You know, this team has been pretty good so far about hazing, I haven’t gotten it too bad. Usually try just to finish all the tasks they require me to do because I don’t want to deal with any type of hazing. I don’t want anything to happen to my truck. I don’t want to deal with any pranks or anything like that, so I just try to get the jobs done.”"
You get into a game into the NBA, I have heard other bigs guys say that the first thing you notice is how strong the other veteran post players are, give us an idea of what that is like?
"“Yeah, they are very strong. All the 5s and some of the 4s in the league, you know they are obviously grown men, they are guys who have been the league for a long time. It’s a man’s league, so you are going up against strong guys every night. That was one of the first things I noticed coming into the league.”"
Who is it that you’ve posted up where you’re like, “Wow this is the strongest guy I’ve ever posted up”?
"“Oh man — I posted up [Jusuf] Nurkic in practice, he’s pretty tough, he’s a strong guy. In the games, I’m mostly posting up 4s, and they are not as strong as some of the guys I’ve had to box out. I’ve had to box out guys like Steven Adams and DeMarcus Cousins. Those guys are huge and strong.”"
When you think about your growth, what are the areas that you think you can really improve on two, three, four years from now?
"“I think shooting the ball more consistently. I thought I had a pretty good stretch in January; Recently I haven’t been shooting the ball that well and that’s something that, as I become a veteran in this league and as I get more experience, that’s going to be a lot easier to do more consistent. Obviously, as I grow into my body a little bit, I’ll go inside more and finish over bigger, stronger guys and, you know, not necessarily overpowering guys, but finding ways to score when guys are stronger than me. Those are two things I can really improve on.”"
Michael Jordan vs. LeBron (James); Who would you take if you had both those guys in your prime? Where does your mind immediately go?
"“My mind goes to LeBron. I’m biased because I grew up watching him, I didn’t grow up watching Michael. It’s tough to compare both. But for me, I think that LeBron plays the right way. He plays team basketball, and you know you always hear him say he isn’t a score-first guy. [LeBron] is always looking to get his teammates better. He rebounds, he plays defense and I think he is a really complete player. I’ve been watching him my whole life and he was my favorite player growing up. I would have to take him [LeBron] in that argument.”"
Your dream was to play in the NBA. Now you’re in the NBA, so what’s the dream now?
"“The dream is to accomplish all the goals I have for myself in the NBA. You know, be an All-Star, win championships, and be in the Hall Of Fame are just some of the goals I have. And I know it’s going to be a long road to get there, but I’m up for it.”"
Summary of the interview
For only being 20, Collins is mature for his age. He understands his role on this team and is not trying to come in and do too much just because he was a top-10 draft pick. He seems to stay pretty level-headed.
Collins wants to be an All-Star type player and wants to win championships.
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He has set goals for himself that Blazer fans should be excited about. Collins knows he has to improve as a player if he is going to stay in the NBA and be a player who makes an impact. He understands that it’s going to take hard work and time, but is up for the challenge.