Atlanta Hawks: 2017-18 player grades for John Collins

Weaknesses

As impressive as Collins’ rookie campaign was, it still failed to impact the Hawks’ success (or lack thereof). Atlanta was slightly better when Collins was off the floor, as the team’s net rating improved from -6.8 to -5.3 when he sat. The glaring difference came on the offensive end, as the Hawks’ scored 3.3 more points per 100 possessions when Collins went to the bench.

The team struggled the most when Collins and Dennis Schroder shared the floor. Despite their games being seemingly suited for one another, Collins and Schroder were like oil and water, as the duo had a -11.6 net rating in more than 700 minutes of play.

The suspect shooting percentages–especially on Schroder’s end–likely contributed to their struggles. Opposing defenses had no reason to respect Collins’ mid-range game (36 percent) or Schroder’s outside stroke (51.5 true shooting percentage), which meant that opponent could sag off of the two and dare one of them to shoot.

Even at his best, Collins may never develop into a player that creates his own shot (75 percent of his shots came off of assists this year), so his success on offense depends on the quality of his teammates. Atlanta didn’t have too many great players for Collins to work off of, so he ultimately couldn’t do much to make the team better.