By Justin Batiste
John Collins drops 30 in summer league play!
Atlanta Hawks, second year player from Wake Forest John Collins had his finger prints all over this Hawks and Knicks game tonight, Guard Trae Young had a productive game with 21 points and 11 assists, and for the Knicks Kevin Knox(rookie) finished with 22 points. Knox has game.
However, the best player on the court was 6-10 forward John Collins. Collins finished the game with 30 points. Collins is strictly a power forward. Collins athletic ability allows him to play the three and four, but his game is more of a four. Offensively. Defensively he can guard all five positions. Collins game is predicated on scoring around the rim with mostly dunks, and spot up three’s. Rarely will you see Collins make a move off the dribble, he’s been more of a catch and dunk guy or a catch and shoot guy. At least that’s what he’s shown so far in summer league.
Collins shows he has a touch from the outside with his three-point shooting but doesn’t shoot many mid-range jumpers. He likes to score around the rim, and tonight that’s what he did. Collins had several dunks in this game. Collins is so athletic and tall that dunking is expected from him, but the way Collins was able to find his spots on the floor for those open dunks and layups is what stood out. Also, what was impressive was how Collins shot the ball tonight. Collins made 4-7 threes’. All were spot up.
Collins also had 8 boards, 1 block and 1 steal. Collins is a second-year summer league player who played heavy minutes in the regular season. So, to see this kind of production shouldn’t come as a surprise, but a 30-point game is always something to talk about in any scenario.
