A Solid State Drive (SSD) is disclosed. The SSD may include a host interface logic to receive a write command from a host and flash memory to store data. The SSD may also include an SSD controller, which may include storage for a just-in-time threshold and a tail latency threshold flash translation layer. The flash translation layer may invoke a just-in-time garbage collection strategy when the number of free pages on the SSD is less than the just-in-time threshold, and a tail latency-aware garbage collection strategy when the number of free pages is less than the tail latency threshold. The tail latency-aware garbage collection strategy may pair the write command with a garbage collection command.