Why Hawks are benching Zaccharie Risacher for CJ McCollum

The Atlanta Hawks are having a somewhat disappointing season, but there is still time to turn things around as they come out of the All-Star break. The Hawks are sitting at 27-31 on the season heading into Sunday’s game against the Brooklyn Nets, and head coach Quin Snyder made a surprising change for the start of that one.

With the team in need of a spark, Snyder benched 2024 No. 1 overall pick Zaccharie Risacher for veteran guard CJ McCollum. Risacher showed promising signs as a rookie, but he has had a rocky second season as the pressure of being a former top pick has started to mount.

McCollum started alongside Jalen Johnson, Dyson Daniels, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Onyeka Okongwu. That five-man lineup came into Sunday’s game with a +18.7 point differential, the best mark on the team according to Lauren L. Williams of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

In a similar line of thinking, Snyder hinted at potentially making this change after Atlanta’s 31-point loss to the Miami Heat on Friday night, via Hawks beat writer Kevin Chouinard.

“That is, by far, our best lineup from a plus-minus standpoint,” Snyder said. “You could make an argument that we should start that lineup … How can we best use CJ?”

McCollum came over to the Hawks in one of the most notable moves of the season when Atlanta sent star point guard Trae Young to the Washington Wizards. There was some thought that McCollum may be bought out when he got to Atlanta, but he has been a quality contributor for the Hawks since the trade.

Before Sunday, McCollum had appeared in 18 games for the Hawks and is averaging 19 points for game in both even 30 minutes of action a night. Without Young on the team anymore, Atlanta desperately needs the scoring punch that McCollum provides as they try to hold their position in the play-in tournament.

On the other side of the coin, moving to the bench will hopefully take some pressure off of Risacher and allow him to start playing his best basketball like he was starting to do last season. If he can rediscover that form, Atlanta will be a scary team coming into the postseason.

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