2019 NBA Mock Draft: Re-evaluating the top prospects
player. 125. . C. Texas. Jaxson Hayes. 10
As is often true of the Hawks, the cap maestro Jeff Siegel put it best in breaking down John Collins defensively:
"“It’s easiest to think of it like this: Collins plays (at least in 2019) as a power forward defensively and a center offensively, so his big man partner has to be someone who can do the reverse, protecting the rim on the defensive end and spacing out to the corners offensively. His ability to stretch the floor himself mitigates some of this team-building challenge, as there’s a world in which he can play next to a traditional rim-to-rim center and make it work, but that pairing would also mute a lot of what Collins does extremely well around the rim himself. This is a bit of a simplification of the team-building process, but the idea stands – building around Collins brings with it specific challenges with regards to his offensive and defensive strengths and weaknesses.”"
Siegel goes on to write that Collins could easily become an adequate power forward defensively if he was a more attentive and physical presence. Considering the way he can hammer in dunks and grab rebounds, it doesn’t seem far-fetched to imagine Collins doing this effectively on the other end.
That would open the door for Atlanta to move away from short-term answers at center such as Dewayne Dedmon and toward a more realistic long-term solution like Hayes. Whether general manager Travis Schlenk ultimately is interested in a traditional big man like Hayes will tell us a lot about his team-building philosophy. Dedmon and Alex Len both shot 3s from the 5-spot this season to help space the floor for Collins to operate inside, but Hayes is unlikely ever to shoot the ball well.
Hayes is a good bet to shore up the defense and glass, but he would fundamentally change the way the team has been built to this point.