{"id":622453,"date":"2026-02-24T18:56:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T18:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/622453\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T18:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T18:56:13","slug":"cj-mccollum-breaks-silence-on-starting-lineup-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/622453\/","title":{"rendered":"CJ McCollum breaks silence on starting lineup change"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Atlanta Hawks<\/a> are in the midst of an important homestand that could help them make up ground in the Eastern Conference. That means that they have to play some of their best ball, and that comes with making changes to the lineup<\/a> to put them in the best position to win.<\/p>\n

That’s what head coach Quin Snyder recently did, inserting CJ McCollum into the starting lineup<\/a> and bringing Zaccharie Risacher off the bench. This is not new territory for McCollum, as he’s been a consistent starter<\/a> throughout most of his career. He was recently asked about the lineup change at Hawks’ shootaround.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a part of the game. I\u2019ve played in 840 games in my career,\u201d McCollum said to reporters. \u201cI\u2019ve obviously started for 10 years straight, and I\u2019m comfortable with that. I told them when I got here, whatever you need me to do, I\u2019ll do. I\u2019ve played a lot of different roles in my career. I\u2019ve been a DNP guy to start. I\u2019ve been at 7th, 8th, and 9th man. I\u2019ve been a starter. So whatever is necessary to help the team, I\u2019ll do.\u201d<\/p>\n

For what McCollum has brought to the Hawks since he was traded, they’d like to have it in the starting lineup now rather than coming off the bench. At the same time, Risacher hasn’t played particularly well in his second season, and it was time for a change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat group of guys that finished the game, their net rating is 10 points above any other combination,\u201d Snyder said after their game against the Brooklyn Nets. \u201cIt\u2019s our best lineup. Not starting CJ gives us ball handling and some scoring punch off the bench. But we don\u2019t get that lineup as much.\u201d<\/p>\n

This move should not only help the Hawks start games off strong, but it could also give Risacher a chance to regain his confidence in a new role.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the biggest thing, it doesn\u2019t reflect in any way on our and my personal belief in Zacch,\u201d Snyder said. \u201cI thought it actually could be a positive for him to be in the game at a different stage against different matchups with different guys. And I was happy to see that I think that was the case. He looked relaxed, and he competed. Zacch\u2019s about all the right stuff. His development is something that\u2019s going to continue to happen whether he\u2019s starting or coming off the bench.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Atlanta Hawks are in the midst of an important homestand that could help them make up ground…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3776],"tags":[676,208,3874,7,7046,677,6,2144],"class_list":{"0":"post-622453","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-hawks","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-hawks","10":"tag-atlantahawks","11":"tag-basketball","12":"tag-cj-mccollum","13":"tag-hawks","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-reporting"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116127137122663198","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}