The Atlanta Hawks have traded John Collins to the Utah Jazz in exchange for Rudy Gay and a future second-round draft pick, ESPN reported on Monday.

Collins still has three years, $79 million of his current contract and he will make $25.3 million for the 2023-24 season. By contrast, Gay only has one year left of his current deal and his salary for the new campaign will be $6.5 million. Therefore, the Hawks created $25.3 million trade exception, the biggest in the league, via this trade.

The Hawks had six contracts that would each cost them over $18 million in the 2023-24 season before the Collins trade. The biggest one belongs to their All-Star point guard Trae Young ($40.1 million). Collins' deal is the second-biggest among the six. With this lineup, the team had to go through the play-in tournament to reach the Eastern Conference playoffs last season and lost to the Boston Celtics in the first round.

Collins has averaged 13.1 points and 6.5 rebounds per game during the 2022-23 regular season and 11.3 points, 4.3 rebounds per game in the playoffs for the Hawks. He is an efficient finisher in the paint and a trustworthy defender to guard perimeter players. However, as a 2.06-meter-tall power forward who poses no threat behind the 3-point line, he had to appear more often in the center position on the offensive possessions. Since Clint Capela and Onyeka Okongwu play in a similar way as well, when two of them are on the court at the same time, the paint becomes two crowded for Young or Dejounte Murray to charge the rim.

That's why the Hawks traded for Saddiq Bey in February, to improve their spacing. Bey made two triples at 40 percent per game for the Hawks since he came. The team had an incredible offensive efficiency of 131.1 when he played power forward, much better than the 116.1 when Collins was in that position.

In fact, Collins may only be the first one traded away by the Hawks to alter their squad. De'Andre Hunter, whose four year, $90 million contract will take effect from the 2023-24 campaign that starts mid-October. He averaged 15.4 points and 4.2 rebounds per game in the 2022-23 regular season and 16.7 points, 5.7 rebounds per game in the playoffs.

If he can maintain his 3-point shooting performance of draining 2.3 triples at 36.8 percent like he did in the series against the Celtis last season, Hunter may keep his role on the Hawks' roster and compete with Bogdan Bogdanovic to become the team's No. 3 ball handler. However, if Hunter's triple shooting is no more than a flash in the pan, he may be put into a package and traded for a star caliber player.

As for the Jazz, they have been successful in turning Lauri Markkanen, who was in a similarly awkward situation as Collins', into an NBA All-Star. The Jazz didn't make the playoffs last season, but they didn't tank like the bottom teams either. Adding Collins to Markkanen, Walker Kessler and Kelly Olynyk will further improve the team's line-up of big men.

The first-rounder the Jazz traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder is a top-10 protected for 2024. They can make contingencies for different scenarios ranging from battling for a play-in tournament berth, working to protect their draft pick, or trade certain players for better return with the current lineup they have.