This Jalen Smith trade proposal could divide Indiana Pacers fans

Should the Indiana Pacers swap Jalen Smith and Buddy Hield for John Collins?

If we bark on the potentials and hypotheticals, the Indiana Pacers getting John Collins would be pretty interesting. After all, the high-leaping forward is a near-perfect fit next to a facilitator like Tyrese Haliburton, who’s arguably a more cerebral playmaker than Young and Murray.

However, banking on Collins to simply flip the switch into his 20-10 self at the instance of a trade is not the safest bet there is. His scoring output may improve and even eclipse Jalen Smith’s typical averages, but the list starts to narrow from there.

His rebounding has greatly decreased, and while that is incidental to sharing the frontcourt with Clint Capela, Smith is simply better in this department. In fact, despite playing 8.2 more minutes than the latter on average, the Pacer has tallied better rebounding numbers.

Trading for Collins in hopes of getting a better shooter is also fool’s gold. His 22.2 mark from three-point land is tied for the third-worst clip among all players averaging at least three attempts from rainbow country per outing.

Oh, and probably overlooked in this discussion is the inclusion of Hield as an outgoing piece. That is automatically a colossal red flag.

To wit, trading Jalen Smith and Buddy Hield for John Collins makes some sense in theory, but the sense only matches up when you’re stuck in yesteryears. As things currently stand, such a deal would do more harm for the Indiana Pacers, as they will be much better off believing that Smith’s slow start to the season is just a matter of him adjusting to a more cemented role.