After Years Of Rumors Trader Danny And The Utah Jazz Are The Team To Finally Trade For John Collins

Todd Kirkland. Getty Images.

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Oh my god, it finally happened!!

The second John Collins signed his 5/125M contract extension on August 4th 2021, there may not have been a player thrown in more trade rumors every single year. Well that's not exactly true. It was basically Myles Turner and John Collins. Every trade deadline, every summer, all we heard about was how both of those guys were going to be traded. Every year, it never happened. So the fact that we actually got a John Collins trade is fairly shocking. 

What isn't shocking is where he ended up.

Back when Ainge was running the Celts, it felt like he was always in the middle of the Collins rumors, only to never do anything about it. Classic Almost Ainge amirite? 

Well this time around it was pretty clear that with the Hawks under orders to trim payroll and the Jazz having enough room to take Collins back in space, it's no surprise that Ainge finally pulled the trigger. Something tells me they'll be able to survive not having Rudy Gay. From the Hawks side, I imagine there are some fans that are pretty upset at the return from a player perspective for one of their main guys/salary slots when really all they get is an old as shit Rudy Gay and a massive TPE

Now nobody loves a massive TPE more than yours truly, but not replacing Collins production (so far) is certainly something the Hawks now have to address. Maybe that tells us more about what Collins' value was around the league and that nobody really wanted to give up real asset to take on this type of money

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but if you're the Jazz IU understand not giving a shit about that. For starters, you didn't give up anything of real value from a player asset perspective to do this deal and you didn't have to overpay with picks. Not only that, but how many people are lining up to join UTA in free agency? Maybe that comes in time if they continue to develop, but right now? At the very worst you can always try and flip Collins as an expiring if he ends up picking up that player option. There's a chance he may be one of those "change of scenery" guys where changing teams has a positive impact on his play on the floor and suddenly his value is rebuilt. 

This also helps the Hawks avoid any second apron issues in the new CBA, which any team that isn't legitimately contending for the title has no business paying. That may be tough for fans to swallow but that's the new reality we're going to see across the league for the foreseeable future. A trade like this is just the first to come, but it certainly won't be the last. 

When Ainge first came to town he was tasked or orchestrating the Jazz's rebuild. After the Gobert and Mitchell trades, things looked like they were off to a solid start. The Jazz were WAY better than people thought they'd be, Will Hardy looks like a homerun coaching hire and now we have a trade like this. In terms of rebuilds, it's hard to argue that Ainge isn't on a roll and he's definitely not done. They have picks to move and other tradable salaries should something come available. Looking at their cap sheet, there aren't too many guys who you would say are on bad money deals

This is what Ainge does. While others make jokes about how he comes so close to making trades only to pull out last second, in reality he's a rebuilding mastermind. He did it in Boston, and he's currently doing it Utah. 

I just can't believe John Collins finally got traded. I didn't think we'd ever see the day where he wouldn't just be a trade rumor. I thought maybe that was a fake Woj tweet or something given how many times we've done this dance in the past. But at the end of the day we were reminded of what Celts fans have always known.

When it comes to Trader Danny, he seems to pull off the impossible.