Why Atlanta is benching Zachary Rizaher for CJ McCollum
The Atlanta Hawks are having a somewhat disappointing season, but there is still time to turn things around once they come out of the All-Star break. The Hawks are 27-31 on the season heading into Sunday’s game against the Brooklyn Nets, and the head coach Quinn Snyder made a surprising change to start that.
With a team in need of a spark, Snyder benched the No. 1 overall pick in 2024 Zachary Risacher for the veteran guard CJ McCollum. Risacher showed promising signs as a rookie, but had a rough sophomore season as the pressure to be a former top pick began to mount.
McCollum started alongside Jaylen Johnson, Dyson Daniels, Nikhil Alexander-Walker and Onyeka Okongwu. That five-man lineup entered Sunday’s game with a +18.7 point differential, best grade in the team according to Lauren L. Williams of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
In a similar line of thinking, Snyder hinted at a potential change after Atlanta lost by 31 points to the Miami Heat on Friday night, via Hawks beat writer Kevin Chouinard.
“It’s by far our best lineup from a plus-minus standpoint,” Snyder said. “You can make the argument that we should start that lineup… How can we best use CJ?”
McCollum joined 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 could be bought out when he came 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 was averaging 19 points per game in both 30 minutes a night. With Young no longer on the team, Atlanta desperately needs the punch McCollum provides as they try to maintain their position in the playoffs.
On the other side of the coin, hopefully the move to the bench will take the pressure off Rizaher and allow him to start playing his best basketball like he did last season. If he can rediscover that form, Atlanta will be a scary team coming into the postseason.
2026-02-22 21:58:00
