The Atlanta Hawks have become reliant on CJ McCollum. How will that work on a long-term basis?
The NBA is often said to be a make-or-miss league. It's reductive, but it's accurate. The best way to win games is to make more shots than your opponent. In the modern, three-point-heavy era, a lot of those shots come from beyond the arc.
As such, three-point volume has become an increasingly significant stat. If you don't fire enough threes, you'll lose the "math game". Whether your roster is stacked with shooters or not, you need to get enough shots up.
This hasn't been a problem for the Atlanta Hawks in 2025-26. Their 39.3 threes per game rank 10th in the NBA. They moved the high-volume shooting Trae Young this year, but brought in another bomber in CJ McCollum. That's fine:
But they'll eventually have to find their long-term McCollum.
Atlanta Hawks' Roster Missing a Long-Term Three-Point Specialist
Some Hawks fans are protesting. Nickeil Alexander-Walker exists. That is true:
But one high-volume shooter won't do in 2025-26.
Meanwhile, the Hawks' spacing situation is...complicated. They get more shooting from starting center Onyeka Onkongwu (38.6% on 5.5 attempts per game) than they do from starting point guard Dyson Daniels.
Onkongwu helps, but if the Hawks plan to continue with Daniels at the point, they'll need more. For now, McCollum helps to insulate Daniels.
For now.
McCollum is a free agent this summer. Even if the Hawks retain him, he's 34. The Hawks' core is generally much younger, so McCollum is a stopgap whether he's back next year or not.
How can the Hawks eventually replace him?
Atlanta Hawks Need to Keep Options Open to Find a Shooting Specialist
The simplest solution would be for Zaccharie Risacher to improve as a shooter.
This year, he's hitting 35.2% of his 4.3 threes per game. If he could increase his accuracy by a few percentage points and launch 2-3 more triples per game, it'd be easy for the Hawks to replace the rest of McCollum's shooting.
If that isn't in the cards, Atlanta needs to target a high-volume shooter via transaction. Whether they can draft someone or trade for one, they'll need to add a player of that type.
The third option may not be popular with Hawks fans, but it's reality. If the Hawks can't find a high-volume three-point shooter - whether in-house or as an outside hire - they may need to part with Dyson Daniels.
He's a phenomenal defender, so hopefully it doesn't come to that. That said, one way or another, this roster's long-term outlook can't be finalized until they have a long-term replacement for McCollum:
In a make-or-miss league, you've got to take enough shots.