Summer league is for small sample sizes, hot takes, and immediate busts. It’s for the basketball junkies, and for those who spend the middle of their workdays streaming meaningless games and discovering guys like John Collins.
Who is John Collins?
John Collins is a Wake Forest product.
Don’t call him the next Tim Duncan just yet, but Collins led the Demon Deacons last year with 19.2 points per game and earned the ACC’s Most Improved Player award as well as a spot on the All-ACC first team.
John Collins is the summer league star you never knew you needed.
In four games of summer league, Collins has gone from a solid late-first-round pick to a member of the pantheon. What pantheon? That of "guy with a generic name who plays (played) on the Hawks and can ball out." Please welcome him into this prestigious group, Joe Johnson and Josh Smith.
Collins has been averaging a double-double in summer league, and he just put up 25 and nine on the Pelicans in his fourth game. Entering Wednesday, he was shooting 60 percent from the field and averaging more than 10 rebounds a game. If this is as high as the John Collins hype ever gets, even though I doubt it will be, then let him be baptized with a proper nickname.
John Collins is a cold-blooded dunker.
In our Draft Guide, Collins was described as an "explosive Enes Kanter," which could be translated to "a good Enes Kanter." I’m excited about him, his "advanced-stats darling" potential, and his near-7-foot wingspan. And given that Hawks fans just lost most of their "big-name" players, there’s even more reason to go all in on Collins.
John Collins is a world traveler.
His father was in the Navy, and his mother was in the Air Force, so during his childhood Collins traveled all over the world. He spent time in Guam, the Virgin Islands, and Turkey. That’s pretty baller.