Atlanta Hawks: 3 goals for John Collins in 2018-19

Atlanta Hawks power forward John Collins enjoyed a fruitful rookie season in 2017-18. How will he follow that up in his sophomore year?

While it was buried underneath a dismal season for the team, Atlanta Hawks power forward John Collins turned in a solid rookie season last year. With averages of 10.5 points, 7.3 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game, it’s safe to say that the former Wake Forest Demon Deacon lived up to 19th overall selection in the 2017 NBA Draft.

Once could have even made the argument that Collins belonged in the Rookie of the Year race last year. The notion isn’t that insane; Collins’ Player Efficiency Rating (PER) and win shares totals — 18.3 and 5.4, respectively — were actually better than Utah Jazz rookie Donovan Mitchell‘s (16.7 and 5.2). You know, the guy that spent the second half of the season campaigning to win the Eddie Gottlieb trophy over Ben Simmons.

Two things worked against Collins in that regard: He didn’t have the flashy game that Mitchell or Simmons did and he played for a lousy team that was clearly tanking. Nevertheless, Collins’ first year can’t be considered anything other than a success.

With a year under his belt, many Hawks fans hope that Collins will continue to improve. We’ve seen glimpses of a more diversified offensive game in NBA Summer League, but it remains to be seen what he’ll do when the games count. These are several goals that may help him along.