The offense that John Collins brings is another story for another time, as he is great and has been a multi-service producer. Defense is where he brings all the concern, and NBA draft guru Sam Vecenie mentions his struggles in the half-court on the ‘Game Theory Podcast,’ which carries more weight than his strong numbers.
In 22 games, Collins has averaged 12.0 points and 5.1 rebounds, shooting 49.5% from the floor. These demonstrate the double-digit scoring, above-average rebounding, and great efficiencies, all of which the LA Clippers need, right?
Wrong; Collins’ defensive ratings alone are at 117.5, and in a three-man lineup next to the Clippers’ best perimeter defender, Kris Dunn, and best interior defender, Ivica Zubac, they collectively have a defensive rating of 116.9 in 329 minutes together.
On top of hearing an expert like Vecenie note that Collins is a poor defender, he also brought up specific examples that would coerce fans of the Clippers to keep their ears shut.
Opponents have used John Collins as the mismatch to win
Against the LA Clippers, opposing offensive masterminds, primarily wings, aim to avoid the better defenders like Ivica Zubac and Derrick Jones Jr. LA does not have a handful of players that can be picked on in isolation, as on paper, most are durable and well-rounded, but John Collins is one of the constantly hunted mismatches that even younger teams have succeeded on.
Sam Vecenie, during one of the recent episodes of his podcast, spoke about Jaren Jackson Jr. on the Memphis Grizzlies and Cooper Flagg on the Dallas Mavericks, whom the Clippers played back-to-back at the end of November.
Jackson Jr. is not a player accustomed to ridiculously high field-goal percentages; he shoots 46.7% from the floor this season. However, against the Clippers, he drilled nine of 13 attempts, and plenty were easy looks that occurred with Collins offering no real pushback.
Twenty-four hours later, Flagg became the youngest player in NBA history to record 35 points, and the first overall pick was smart to allow the game to come easy to him by taking the scouting report into account and attacking Collins.
That said, the area in the box scores that Collins does well in filling up, points and rebounds, is valuable. Yet, if he does get traded at the deadline, it will be because of his unbearable defensive presence, which directly caters points to opponents, and his expiring contract.