If Jason Collins didn't have a twin brother, he'd be absolutely unrivalled in his uniqueness. There's few players quite like him.
Tall, fairly quick, and pretty strong, Jason Collins manages to offer roughly nothing at both scoring and rebounding. He has no jumpshot, has turned into a bad free throw shooter from previously being a good one, can't make layups consistently, has no go-to moves, and simply struggles to score. He is limited now to the hand-off. The little scoring talent that he had, he lost.
Additionally, as mentioned, he's also a bad rebounder, with rebounding numbers that consistently defy his size. This is something he was never good at it to begin with, but nonetheless, it too has declined with age. Collins often guards perimeter orientated big men, which factors into the rebounding numbers, but he's also just no good at it. It's not unheard of for Collins - who has spent most of his career as a starter - to often post stat lines of 0's across the board, except for fouls. The classic trillion. It's a thing of beauty, in an ugly-sexy kind of way.
Collins also manages to boast the most absolutely ridiculously terrible PER numbers that you ever did see. Whether you value that stat or not, it is irrefutably telling a story here.
So why does he play? For defense. Collins is (or was) a very versatile defender, who can (or could) guard players bigger than him, shorter than him, faster than him and stronger than him, to decent effect. He can stay in front of people and generally ruin their day on the defensive end. But even his only strength comes at a high price - he fouls extremely often.
Considering the length of his career, the playing time he has recorded, and the money he has been paid, it appears that this is sufficient.
- 5th March, 2009.
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The best of what's left after what was the best of what's left has gone and is no longer left
