Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Hawks draft Collins
The Cardinal Newman star was the 19th pick.
Two years after starring at Cardinal Newman, John Collins will be playing in the NBA.
The former Crusaders star and recent Wake Forest power forward was selected by the Atlanta Hawks with the 19th pick in Thursday’s first round of the NBA draft.
At 6-foot-10 and 225 pounds, Collins is coming off a dominant sophomore season at Wake Forest, averaging 19.2 points and 9.8 rebounds. Collins, 19, earned All-American honors and was a firstteam All-ACC selection.
Collins is the third Palm Beach County player ever selected in the first round of the NBA draft. Former Lake Worth star Otis Thorpe was taken ninth in 1984, while Derek Harper (now-closed North Shore) went 11th in 1983.
Tavarus Harris, who coached Collins at Cardinal Newman, was thrilled to watch his former star get drafted and thinks the Hawks picked a winner.
“They’re getting a young, mature man,” Harris said. “A kid who knows what he wants and where he wants to be. They’re not getting someone who will settle because he made it. He’ll outwork everyone around him and keep improving.”
Harris sees Collins’ relative youth, turning pro before he would become a junior in college, as a bonus for the team.
“I don’t see a ceiling for him anytime soon,” Harris said. “With his mindset, he’s going to continue to grow — and every time he reaches his ceiling, it’ll become his floor.”
A Sun Sentinel high school preseason Fab Five selection in 2014, Collins hit his
stride in his senior year, averaging 20.3 points and 10.2 rebounds and leading Cardinal Newman to a Florida Class 4A runner-up finish. Named 2015’s Palm Beach County Player of the Year, Collins shot 71 percent from the floor as a senior as the Crusaders finished 27-2.
Rated the 230th prospect in the nation as a senior by 247Sports, Collins signed with Wake Forest to play for former NBA standout Danny Manning. As a freshman, Collins played a reserve role for the Demon Deacons, averaging 7.3 points and 3.9 boards in 14.4 minutes per game.
This past year, Collins’ numbers skyrocketed. As a sophomore, he more than doubled his previous scoring and rebounding totals, earning the ACC’s Most Improved Player honors. Leading the nation in Player Efficiency Rating for 2016-17, Collins became the first Wake Forest player in 20 years to notch 600 points and 300 rebounds in a season.
The last Deacon to accomplish the feat? Now-retired San Antonio Spurs forward and 15-time NBA All-Star Tim Duncan in 1997. Harris said Collins felt he’d been overlooked as a preps player. “He carried a chip on his shoulder at Wake Forest — and showed why he should have been a high-level recruit out of high school.”
Hawks fans will get their first glimpse of Collins when NBA Summer League tips off in Las Vegas on July 7.
Atlanta went 43-39 last season and reached the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs before falling to the Washington Wizards. The Hawks recently traded veteran Dwight Howard to Charlotte.