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The Atlanta Hawks are trading PF John Collins to the Utah Jazz, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The Jazz will receive Collins, who is set to make $78 million over the next three seasons. Utah will send SF Rudy Gay and a future second-round pick to the Hawks as part of the deal, per Woj. Atlanta is basically dumping the salary of a borderline All-Star to gain cap flexibility to build for the future around PG Trae Young.
ESPN Sources: The Hawks are finalizing a trade to send F/C John Collins to the Jazz for Rudy Gay and a future second-round pick. Atlanta’s largely unloading Collins’ three years, $78M for some roster building flexibility and alignment with looming changes to salary cap. pic.twitter.com/CpAfTNXKMq
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 26, 2023
Collins has three years on his contract and a player option for the final season worth $26 million. He will be a $25 million cap hit this upcoming season and $26 million the following season. Young and De’Andre Hunter are signed through 2026-27 with the PG on a max deal. Hunter signed an extension, which kicks in for 2023-24 at a cap hit around $20 million. Moving Collins allows the Hawks to add another superstar to their roster to play alongside Young.
For the Jazz, the franchise is going through a major rebuild and has a lot of assets to play around with moving forward. Collins will have a home where he can get a lot of minutes and usage. Utah was in need of a wing/power forward to eat up minutes alongside Lauri Markkanen. Collins will make for an interesting trade deadline piece, more likely to be dealt in 2024-25.