But that is exactly what the water carrying guys reported, and why they put him on the trade block. That he has struggled adapting to Hardy's systems.As the kids would say “it ain’t that deep”. It isn’t that he’s performed horribly… it isn’t that he’s broken… it’s simply he’s just not that good. He’s fine but he’s got his limitations. They were there in Atlanta in multiple roles and iterations. The players you need to fit around John to maximize what he does are rare. He’s a third big who’s paid like a surefire everyday starter.
The plus minus stuff is exaggerated for sure. I swear people forgot about the extreme difference an elite rim protector makes in things like plus minus. Based on plus minus Rudy would look like the mvp in advanced stats. Collins is a horrible rim protector as a center. Lauri really isn’t a rim protecting center… going from shutting off the paint to a full green light makes a huge difference in defense. That is why it will always look bad. If you had a floor spacing rim protector then Collins could play starter minutes and put up his near 20/10 as a roller and spot up shooter. Otherwise he’s just a third big that makes twice as much as he should.
I know his on/off being in the bottom 1% defensively has a lot to do with Kessler, but Collins has 220 minutes with Kessler for the season and he has managed to sabotage even Kesslers defensive rating to 10 points higher level than Kessler has with anyone on the entire roster (including spot minute guys). Its not individual 1om1 failures, its that he misses assigments and rotations and the whole defense gets disorganized.
In last 15 games (so during our hot stretch), Kessler has an awesome DRtg with 2 poor individual defenders (George 97.9, Olynyk 96.0), but he still has 116.8 rating with Collins. Only one who comes within 10 points of that is Sexton at 108.0.
This is Kessler 2-man lineup ranked by DRtg.
