{"id":488379,"date":"2026-02-24T22:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T22:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/488379\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T22:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T22:02:08","slug":"atlanta-hawks-swap-ex-top-pick-zaccharie-risacher-for-cj-mccollum-in-starting-five","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/488379\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlanta Hawks swap ex-top pick Zaccharie Risacher for CJ McCollum in starting five"},"content":{"rendered":"

ATLANTA — For only the third time in 120 career games, Zaccharie Risacher<\/a> was absent from the starting lineup on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Instead, it was CJ McCollum<\/a>, a 13-year veteran acquired from Washington, that joined a starting five made up of Jalen Johnson<\/a>, Onyeka Okongwu<\/a>, Nickeil Alexander-Walker<\/a> and Dyson Daniels<\/a> in Atlanta\u2019s 115-104 win over the Nets.<\/p>\n

Hours ahead of the Hawks\u2019 7:30 p.m. ET tipoff against the Wizards on Tuesday, Risacher said he\u2019s prepared to give it his all, regardless of whose name is announced at the start of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been a team player,\u201d the Hawks\u2019 2024 first-round pick said. \u201cI\u2019m ready to do whatever it takes to be able to impact the game as much as I can … I feel like it\u2019s all about the team, so no matter if I start or not, I\u2019m still going to give 100% on the court.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a move Atlanta\u2019s been trending toward since acquiring McCollum. The Hawks\u2019 most common closing lineup, featuring Johnson, Okongwu, Alexander-Walker, Daniels and McCollum, has quickly become the preferred group late in games.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, that pattern continued as the Hawks overcame an 11-point deficit with a 24-2 run in the final seven minutes of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat group of guys that finished the game, by far, their net rating is like 10 points above any other combination,\u201d coach Quin Snyder said. \u201cIt\u2019s our best lineup.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCollum proved worthy of his spot with 16 points, eight rebounds, four assists and a steal in 32 minutes. Risacher added seven points and a rebound in 20 minutes off the bench.<\/p>\n

Snyder noted the upside of having McCollum anchor the second unit, but the lack of meaningful minutes with the starters prompted adjustments after a slew of slow starts.<\/p>\n

Even after moving Risacher out of the starting five, the coach insisted his belief in the Frenchman hasn\u2019t wavered.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t reflect, in any way, my personal belief in Zacch,\u201d Snyder said. \u201cZacch\u2019s about all the right stuff, and so his development is something that\u2019s going to continue to happen whether he\u2019s starting or coming off the bench.\u201d<\/p>\n

Snyder said Risacher\u2019s minutes are aligned with others in the 2024 draft class. But pressure mounts as the queue builds up behind the second-year forward on the depth chart after a series of new arrivals.<\/p>\n

In a season of extreme turnover for the Hawks, nearly half the roster has joined the team in the past two months. That group includes both McCollum and Corey Kispert<\/a> from the Wizards and Jonathan Kuminga<\/a> from the Warriors, who has been injured since arriving in Atlanta but is expected to be in the mix soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese quandaries are always there. This is just the latest one. So, we\u2019ll work our way through it,\u201d Snyder said. \u201cThere\u2019s a balance there – your belief in guys and giving them confidence, and then also, we\u2019re about winning. We want to win the game, and you have to make some decisions along that line.\u201d<\/p>\n

But not all changes are final.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think,\u201d Snyder said, \u201cthere\u2019s anything set in stone where we make a decision and that\u2019s how we\u2019re going for the rest of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA — For only the third time in 120 career games, Zaccharie Risacher was absent from the starting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[174029,224334,355,99,224335],"class_list":["post-488379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-atlanta-hawks-sports-basketball-team-team-statscom-1","tag-cj-mccollum-sports-basketball-player-player-statscom-522878","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-zaccharie-risacher-sports-basketball-player-player-statscom-1432544"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}