Well, the Hawks now have some extra shooters. They traded their franchise player to get those shooters, but Corey Kispert and CJ McCollum are heading south to hopefully provide an offensive injection in the A.
With Trae out and Kispert + McCollum in, there are endless new lineup combinations head coach Quin Snyder can trot out the rest of the season. Well, maybe not endless. Probably like, 10. I'm not a math guy. Regardless, these are the three five-man combos that could give the Hawks a few extra dimensions they didn't have before.
1. The easy switch
Player | Position |
|---|---|
Dyson Daniels | Point guard |
CJ McCollum | Shooting guard |
Nickeil Alexander-Walker | Small forward |
Jalen Johnson | Power forward |
Onyeka Okongwu | Center |
This seems like the most obvious five to experiment with. This lineup with Risacher instead of McCollum has a net rating of plus-5.1 this season. Sticking McCollum in there for Risacher sacrifices some size, as McCollum's 6-foot-3 frame is a much different look than Risacher's at 6-foot-8. It also lowers the defensive ceiling of the starting unit. Yes, Risacher's defensive upside is still more hypothetical than actual, but McCollum's defense isn't even hypothetical.
With all that being said — this lineup still makes sense to me. McCollum's shot creation and shot-making ability would balance out Dyson Daniels in the backcourt, and NAW can still serve as the kind of roving ballhandler / scorer he's been this season.
Maybe CJ serves as a sixth man to start, replacing Risacher as the first substitute of the game and proviiding a more robust offensive lineup. Could be cool!
2. Let's get weird
Player | Position |
|---|---|
Nickeil Alexander-Walker | Point guard |
CJ McCollum | Shooting guard |
Corey Kispert | Small forward |
Mo Gueye | Power forward |
Onyeka Okongwu | Center |
Hear me out, please!
The five-man group of Luke Kennard, NAW, Onyeka, Vit Krejci, and Mo Gueye have a net rating of plus-15.1. Yes, they've only played 23 minutes together, but it's been a good 23 minutes! So, why not swap out Luke and Vit with the new guys, both of whom provide a little more floor-spacing?
It's so crazy it just might work — for about four minutes per game. The people are begging for mo' Mo, anyway, and this may be the lineup that lets him cook the most.
3. Oops! All offense
Player | Position |
|---|---|
Nickeil Alexander-Walker | Point guard |
CJ McCollum | Shooting guard |
Zaccharie Risacher | Small forward |
Jalen Johnson | Power forward |
Kristaps Porzingis | Center |
Somewhat surprisingly, the Hawks' best offensive lineup is this group with Dyson in place of CJ. Why not try to make it even more high-powered by inserting the solely offensive-minded McCollum for the All-Defense talent in Daniels? Dyson obviously brings so much to this team, but his 11.7% 3-point shooting certainly limits how spaced the floor can be when he's out there. In fact, it's pretty impressive that he's in so many of the Hawks' top offensive lineups with how poorly he's shooting this year.
I don't care about getting stops when the team is scoring 150 points per 100 possessions. More points, more points, more points!
Quin Snyder has plenty of experimenting to do
Losing Trae Young, who the Hawks have built their offensive identity around for years, is going to be a tough adjustment. I can't even think about adding Anthony Davis right now, so I really hope that doesn't happen right after this article gets published.
Say what you will about the return package for Young, but McCollum and Kispert will both help the Hawks immediately. Kispert is a high-level movement shooter, and McCollum has been a near-20 point scorer his whole career; that career has just been in obscurity the past few years with the Pelicans and Wizards.
Quin Snyder might spell his name wrong, but he deserves a bit of time to figure out what exactly he has with these Hawks.