Minnesota Timberwolves: 4 trade deadline ideas featuring Ricky Rubio

Trade No. 2: Minnesota Timberwolves acquire John Collins from the Hawks

Another name the Wolves have been recently linked with, John Collins is another option for a potential massive upgrade at the power forward position for the Wolves.

There have been plenty of rumors suggesting that the Hawks would be open to trading Collins, and some recent activity on Collins’ Instagram account has these rumors echoing even louder across the league.

As one of the league’s best up-and-coming bigs, Collins makes a lot of sense for the Wolves. He has the ability to score at all three levels and would be a perfect match offensively alongside KAT. Averaging 18.0 points and 7.6 boards on 38.8 percent shooting from three, Collins would be an ideal fit from an offensive standpoint.

Collins has also improved as a defender since getting a chance to play alongside Clint Capela; the duo of bigs has the second-best defensive rating among two-man partnerships in the Eastern Conference (minimum of 350 minutes played).

The biggest question for the Wolves would be Collins’ long-term price tag. His contract expires after this season and reportedly rejected a $90 million extension from the Hawks, which indicates he wants close to max money. The Wolves will have to decide if Collins is worth the money, as it wouldn’t make sense to give up assets for a player who they won’t be able to re-sign.

Money aside, however, Collins makes a lot of sense for the Wolves from a basketball perspective.

For the Hawks, this trade makes sense if they truly want to move off of Collins. As a team poised to make a playoff run in the East, this trade equips the Hawks with players to support their young core.

Ricky Rubio would likely play a similar role to Rajon Rondo in Atlanta, acting as a mentor for Trae Young. Given the contrast between Rubio and Young’s games, Rubio would be a nice change-of-pace option off the bench. On top of Rubio, the Hawks would also receive two of the Wolves’ first-round picks over the last two years in Jarrett Culver (No. 6 overall in 2019) and Jaden McDaniels (No. 28 overall in 2020).

The Hawks had reported interest in Culver prior to the 2019 draft, and if that interest still remains, a change of scenery would likely get more out of the second-year wing. McDaniels is already one of Minnesota’s best two-way players who has a ton of room for improvement and an extremely high upside. He would be the player that the Wolves would struggle the most with giving up.

Additionally, Naz Reid is also a nice stretch-5 player that would be a healthy change of pace from Capela off the bench.

Normally, Collins would command significant value on the trade market, but given the amount of money he wants and his expiring contract, it’s difficult to pinpoint what value he would command on the trade market.

More than anything, this is a package of players that compliments Atlanta’s young core, and if Atlanta truly doesn’t want to pay John Collins next year and wants to get trade him for assets, this core of players makes a lot of sense given their current situation.