d-train wrote:My observation is Collins grabs a disproportionate amount of rebounds out of his area. Something that is harped on as a desirable quality. In my view, you can't dominate the boards without dominating the prime real estate. So, Collins will never be the guy we want to depend on as our main rebounder. However, we don't need a PF that does everything. We are building a team.
Oh yea, I'd agree with this. Collins isn't going to anchor a team's rebounding or anything, but he's been excellent as a secondary rebounder since the bubble started. If he can maintain that, it's a really good bonus to his potential defensive impact (I'd argue he's a positive more often than not defensively).
As much as Collins has struggled offensively with his touch. I've actually been overall encouraged by what I've seen from him offensively overall. It's been 6 games, and things haven't bounced his way to this point, but I've seen numerous instances of major progression from only a year ago. In many ways he reminds me of Nurkic in his first full season in Portland around the rim. He rushes things too much at times, and just hasn't quite zeroed in as much as he needs to yet.
Against the 76ers:
https://stats.nba.com/events/?flag=3&CFID=&CFPARAMS=&PlayerID=1628380&TeamID=1610612757&GameID=0021901289&ContextMeasure=FGA&Season=2019-20&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&RangeType=0&StartPeriod=1&EndPeriod=10&StartRange=0&EndRange=28800§ion=game&sct=plotShot 1: Yea he misses the bunny. But honestly, that's Embiid on him, he shows good strength to nudge him a bit create a bit of space and put up the shot. It didn't go in, but it was VERY close. I think these are shots that will go in as he develops. I really like this from Collins, I don't think he even has the strength to do this a year ago.
Shot 2: Again, Collins isn't the strongest guy in the world but he's finding creative ways to establish really good post position. I think he has touch, and these are the types of shots that show it. I'd honestly wager that if he'd been healthy all year, some of these in close bunnies that are rimming/bouncing out of the cylinder would be going down right now. He makes this, this is a good job by Collins again playing smart and doing something that he wasn't very good at last year, which was finding ways to establish deep position and use his length to get the ball up.
Shot 3: This is one of those that many of us don't like from him. I think this is a clear foul on Horford, but what are you going to do eh... He needs to get better at keeping the ball up, or when he brings the ball down he needs to get it to someone to just reset the offense. I think he should have been at the line for 2, but it is what it is.
Against the Clippers:
https://stats.nba.com/events/?flag=3&CFID=&CFPARAMS=&PlayerID=1628380&TeamID=1610612757&GameID=0021901280&ContextMeasure=FGA&Season=2019-20&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&RangeType=0&StartPeriod=1&EndPeriod=10&StartRange=0&EndRange=28800§ion=game&sct=plotShot 1: Really does have a smooth looking stroke. Sinks the 3 right over George, no problem.
Shot 2: Just an easy dunk behind the defense
Shot 3: Same
Shot 4: Nice footwork, but this is just bad shot. That needs to be a hook shot of some sort, doing some grounded jumper sort of thing is just not a good decision here.
Shot 5: Yea.. don't know what happened there. I believe in his jumper and I think its coming, and will be a weapon for him sooner rather than later, but that one didn't come out right.
Against the Nuggets:
https://stats.nba.com/events/?flag=3&CFID=&CFPARAMS=&PlayerID=1628380&TeamID=1610612757&GameID=0021901272&ContextMeasure=FGA&Season=2019-20&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&RangeType=0&StartPeriod=1&EndPeriod=10&StartRange=0&EndRange=28800§ion=game&sct=plotShot 1: Missed 3. Not much to say, it happens and he's not Steph Curry.
Shot 2: That's an ugly putback attempt. He probably should have just stayed where he was and let the initial defender land on him for the foul. He tries to move around too much sometimes and get up a clean foul. He gets a lot of guys in the air but he should aim to draw contact more. Definitely need to work on an effective way to get the garbage points here, or just reset the offense.
Shot 3: This is Nurk from 2 years ago. Needs to slow down. Reminds me a lot of Nurk when he would struggle with patience when on the block. Still I think this shows how much stronger and more assertive he's become on the block. He really drops the shoulder and does get Jokic off balance and nudging him back. Collins really has some fantastic footwork, but he needs to develop something he can really go to on the block and then use his footwork to counter. He has a lot of technical ability and potential, but he's rushing things and doesn't seem to have that one shot he can land at a high clip. These types of post ups against a mismatch that's in his favor though, could be a real weapon for him at some point.
Shot 4: If he can iron this down, that's going to be there for him all day. Nice little mid-range pull-up that he was using to great success in preseason and the first 2 games this year. This is something the Blazers should try a bit more.
Shot 5: Just a made 3. His form is pretty nice. He has a really silky jumper for a guy his size.
Against the Celtics:
https://stats.nba.com/events/?flag=3&CFID=&CFPARAMS=&PlayerID=1628380&TeamID=1610612757&GameID=0021901245&ContextMeasure=FGA&Season=2019-20&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&RangeType=0&StartPeriod=1&EndPeriod=10&StartRange=0&EndRange=28800§ion=game&sct=plotShot 1: Mismatch, easy bucket. Establishing that deep position that I talked about that he didn't do much of a couple of years ago.
Shot 2: Not much to say, Celtic gambled, Collins dunked. Sort of a hard play to have much to say about.
Shot 3: This is the progression that's obvious to me. Collins didn't get overpowered by the smaller Hayward. He bumped him nice and hard, created good space, and sank the hook shot. Collins COULD NOT do this a couple of years ago. He's playing a lot harder in the post than people are giving him credit for in this thread. He's really banging down there even if he's not a Nurkic powerhouse. This is clear progression people, it may not be there yet, but not once in all his shots so far has he truly been overpowered and had to resort to some **** shot. He's establishing better position, and he's posting up with noticeably more force than in the past. I'd argue that if there were 30 games left, mismatching Collins in the post would probably be a good idea to see if we could get him going a bit more offensively.