If the 2017 NBA Draft happened all over again, the Atlanta Hawks might not end up with John Collins.
In the 2017 NBA Draft, forward John Collins landed with the Atlanta Hawks at No. 19 overall in the first round.
If the draft happened all over again today, he probably wouldn't make it far enough down the board for the Hawks to select him again.
In a do-over of the 2017 NBA Draft, Bleacher Report has Collins landing with the Detroit Pistons at No. 12 overall.
The exercise is based on each team selecting the best player available based on what's known today about how the draft class panned out. Collins, who fell outside of the lottery originally, would have a strong case at moving up several spots in a re-draft scenario.
Of course, this is all just fun and games. But the exercise does show that the Hawks did a good job of identifying Collins as a strong value pick at No. 19, as he's outplayed a number of players who were drafted ahead of him.
In Bleacher Report's re-draft, big man Luke Kornet ends up with Atlanta instead of Collins at No. 19. Kornet originally went undrafted but has established himself as a playable rotation piece in the NBA. Ironically, he has a little history with the Hawks stemming from a controversy last season.
Collins, for his part, has bounced around the NBA in recent seasons. The Hawks traded him away in the 2023 offseason after they spent six seasons together, which marked the start of a somewhat hectic period of his career.
He spent two seasons with the Utah Jazz after being traded there by Atlanta, but the Jazz then moved him to the Los Angeles Clippers in the 2025 offseason. Collins then spent just one season with the Clippers before leaving in free agency this summer.
As a free agent, he signed a three-year deal with none other than the Pistons, adding a fun wrinkle to Bleacher Report's re-draft.
His deal with Detroit should give him some stability and a chance to finally settle down somewhere. He will also have the benefit of playing on a contending team, as the Pistons were the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference last season.
Collins flashed star potential at times with the Hawks, averaging as many as 21.6 points and 10.1 rebounds per game in a single season, but his production dipped over his final few seasons with the team as his role decreased.
Ultimately, there was hope that he could've been something more in Atlanta, but the organization still did a nice job of seeing his potential and drafting him at No. 19 overall.
