John Collins Trade Rumors: Multiple Teams 'Feeling Out' Hawks' Price for PF

Multiple teams have reportedly reached out to the Atlanta Hawks to gauge their interest in trading forward John Collins but have been rebuffed.

Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium reported teams have been "feeling out" Atlanta's asking price ahead of next Thursday's trade deadline.

The Hawks' willingness to trade Collins has been nonexistent to this point, but the team is interested in adding a "more natural center." Atlanta has reportedly reached out to express interest in Houston's Clint Capela, Sacramento's Dewayne Dedmon and Oklahoma City's Steven Adams.

The idea that Atlanta would trade Collins seems unlikely at best.

He's a 22-year-old who is averaging 19.0 points and 10.2 rebounds per game this season and is clearly the team's second-best player behind Trae Young. With the Hawks scuffling to a 13-36 record (tied for the second-worst in the league), they need to be thinking of how to get Young more help—not subtracting his best young teammate.

However, Collins could become expendable if the Hawks find a star-level natural 5. While springy and able to block shots at the rim, the 6'9", 235-pounder hasn't developed into a net positive defender yet. His 1.8 blocks per game would be top-10 in the league if he had played enough this season to qualify; he has played only 23 games after being suspended for violating the NBA's anti-drug policy.

The Wake Forest product is a developing but still below-average three-point shooter, knocking down 33.7 percent of his shots from deep.

Atlanta will almost certainly want to spend the next couple of seasons monitoring the 2017 first-rounder's progress and hoping he improves at the rim while becoming a more reliable shooter from distance. If he does, Collins is a near-ideal modern center who will probably be able to use his athleticism to defend against bigger opponents.