The Atlanta Hawks were the surprise of the East last season. Besides having some expectations, no one had the Hawks making a run to the Eastern Conference Finals. On the other side of the NBA, the Dallas Mavericks were stopped in the first round once again. This time, the Luka Doncic-led squad fell in seven games to the Los Angeles Clippers. The duo of Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis has not brought a ton of success to this franchise. Thus, when the Mavs were made aware that John Collins was available, they quickly showed interest. To help them make this a reality, here is the perfect trade offer Mavs must make for Hawks star John Collins.
Perfect Mavs trade offer for Hawks John Collins
Mavs get John Collins; Hawks get Kristaps Porzingis
This is the only trade between the two squads that makes sense financially, but also in terms of the players and how they fit on the roster. In this trade, the Mavs will get a younger player, a better fit next to Doncic, and a general reset over the roster. The Hawks, on the other hand, will get a prime player to put next to Trae Young. They would also need to take his contract, but it is not much more than Collins was making. Let's dig into the merits of the trade for both squads.
First, for the Hawks, they will get a former All-Star who can still channel his former self. The current Mavs forward has not had a good stretch in Texas, but that does not mean he is beyond his best basketball. Porzingis can still shoot, although his percentage has taken a massive dive this season. He is still a good defender, blocking 1.7 shots per game this season. Porzingis will pair well with Capela, who blocks around 1.5 shots per game and make the Hawks paint a hard place to score easy points. He can also rebound well, much better than this season's 8.0 rebounds per game show.
However, the reason why the Hawks are accepting this trade from the Mavs is purely banking on the fact that Porzingis can channel his old self. Collins is a solid player, obviously, but if Porzingis can be his Knicks-self once again, the Latvian forward will increase the chances of the Hawks going back into the playoffs. With the Knicks, Porzingis had an All-Star season, scoring 22.7 points per game on almost 40% three-point shooting. Now, of course, he has not been that Porzingis with the Mavs, but there are many factors that contributed to that. Mostly, it is the pressure of playing with Luka Doncic and while they are from the same draft class, Trae Young doesn't draw as much attention as Luka. It's a chance for Porzingis to get more touches and re-gain his brilliance.
For the Mavs, the equation is simple – get a player as closest to a star as possible, without increasing the pressure on the team to win right away. What most people forget is that Luka Doncic is still only 22 and that he signed that massive extension in the summer, keeping him in Dallas until the 2026-27 season. That automatically means that the Mavs have a ton of time to accommodate him, and since it is not working with Porzingis, it is time to go with another option.
John Collins is not exactly a superstar, but he is a great complimentary player. He is a solid rebounder, shot-blocker, has a great vertical, and is very athletic in general. One thing that he has that Porzingis does not is efficiency. In his career, Collins has a 56.4% field goal percentage, and this season, he makes 54.1% of the 12.1 shots per night. Collins can get the Mavs easy points when needed. Additionally, even though it is only on 3.1 attempts, Collins shoots 44.5% from behind the three-point line.
Collins also draws much less attention than Porzingis, something that the Mavs can benefit from. As said above, Collins is not a superstar and with Porzingis out, some of the attention on Doncic and the Mavs would definitely disappear. That bodes well for the young Slovenian and the rest of the Dallas franchise since they have been under the loop ever since they pulled the trigger on the Porzingis deal. This way, they could use the time and new cap flexibility they have with Collins' deal to really put forward a solid team to challenge for the West. Of course, they would be the underdogs, due to the massive quality in the West, but they could wait for their moment as Doncic becomes a better and more experienced player.
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