Jazz News: John Collins Had Interest From Milwaukee Bucks

The Utah Jazz had some unsuspected competition pursuing John Collins in their most recent trade.

Despite securing the services of John Collins for such a low price, the Utah Jazz were not completely uncontested in their efforts to trade for the veteran big man. In a recent rumor within the NBA circle, the Milwaukee Bucks were a surprise team connected to acquiring Collins.

While unable to pinpoint exactly how serious these talks got, the Bucks had some internal talks involving JC at bare minimum. In a report from Zach Lowe, Milwaukee had "at least had some relatively serious internal discussions” about a potential deal with the Atlanta Hawks.

“A team I heard at least had some relatively serious internal discussions about ‘Should we wade into the John Collins thing? And I don’t know if they contacted Atlanta or how serious it got, was Milwaukee. And that’s interesting to me because I do think Milwaukee is looking around for, like, ‘Can we get a little just injection of randomness? An injection of, like, balance and athleticism. And just change. Maybe just change more than anything else. I don’t think it went anywhere serious.”

- Zach Lowe, via



The Lowe Podcast

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A John Collins fit next to Giannis Antetokounmpo would have been interesting to say the least. Adding a declining shooting big in John Collins next to Giannis, a notoriously poor shooter, seems like it would be a negative fit on paper. It’s likely a considerable reason why their front office was hesitant to pull the trigger, even if the cost to trade for him was a bag of chips.

The Jazz were the team taking the swing in the end, trading Rudy Gay and a second-round pick for Collins. After already productive seasons from Lauri Markkanen and Walker Kessler and drafting Taylor Hendricks, this now gives the Jazz one of the most talented frontcourt cores in the NBA.

With free agency just around the corner, the Jazz have the chance to add even more talent to their already improved roster.

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