John Collins, Hawks Agree To Five-Year Contract

The Hawks have agreed to a five-year contract with power forward John Collins, agents Sean Kennedy and Jeff Schwartz told Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

The deal is for $125 millioon and includes a player option for the first year, Wojnarowski reported.

Collins was a restricted free agent, and there had been some doubts about his future in Atlanta at the start of the season. But his importance to the team became clear during the Hawks’ inspirig run to the Eastern Conference finals.

“From the 19th overall pick in the 2017 draft to a centerpiece power forward on the Eastern Conference finalists this season, a remarkable rise to this contract for Collins,” Wojnarowski wrote.

Collins, 23, is 6-foot-9 and averaged 17.6 points and 7.4 rebounds in 63 regular-season games. 

Hawks owner Tony Ressler recently addressed Collins’ contract situation.

“Our job is to come to a fair agreement with John. That’s our objective. There should be no question,” Ressler told reporters. “He’s a really good player and maybe more importantly, a really good person. So the idea of having both is important to this franchise. That’s my view. The idea of being smart for both of us, to come to a reasonable place, that’s the objective, and there should be no confusion.

“I think as (general manager) Travis (Schlenk) said, which I think is amazing, a lot of players that don’t agree to a contract going into this season, play in a certain way. John played as an amazing teammate trying to win games and doing whatever he could do to win games. John’s a really good guy and a really good teammate. I hope he is an Atlanta Hawk.”