Evaluating CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert's Debuts With The Atlanta Hawks

How did McCollum and Kispert's debuts go on Sunday night against the Warriors?

Jan 11, 2026; San Francisco, California, USA; Atlanta Hawks guard CJ McCollum (3) momentarily loses his dribble as he is harassed by Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) during the fourth quarter at Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images | D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images

The Atlanta Hawks have won three straight games and five of their last seven. They have been playing better on the defensive end of the court and are now 2-0 since trading Trae Young. Now, there is not a big enough sample size to determine how this trade has gone this season, but the Hawks are playing well right now and look to continue that against the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night.

Last night marked the debut of recent acquisitions CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert for the Hawks, the two players Atlanta acquired in the deal that sent Young to Washington. How did they look in their debuts and what could it mean going forward?

CJ McCollum

McCollum was the one player that was assuredly going to get playing time for the Hawks. It was not clear though whether or not he was going to start, as he had not come off the bench since the 2014-2015 season. It made sense though that head coach Quin Snyder stuck with Nickeil Alexander-Walker since he had plenty of chemistry with this starting lineup.

The thing that should be encouraging to the Hawks is that they won convincingly on the road against a healthy Warriors team and McCollum did not shoot the ball particularly well.

That is not to say that McCollum was dreadful or anything, counting stats are not the best way to judge games at all, as he finished with a team best +19 in the win last night, but he was 5-14 from the field (including 2-8 in the second half) and was not great on defense, which was a given. Still, he had four assists in 24 minutes and gave the Hawks another ball handler on the court.

I think that McCollum should only improve with the Hawks going forward. He is going to figure out his role with the team and get used to playing with his new teammates. Not only that, but the Hawks were missing Zaccharie Risacher and Kristaps Porzingis. Those two should make McCollum's life easier as well and I look forward to seeing how he continues to evolve.

Corey Kispert

McCollum had a role that was fairly easy to define, but Kispert's was less clear.

Kispert played close to 14 minutes for the Hawks and was 0-4 from the field, including 0-3 from three.

The biggest question that I have going forward is how many minutes does Kispert see when Risacher returns? Kispert's biggest asset is his three point shooting, but the Hawks are going to prioritize Risacher's development (even if he does not close games). Vit Krejci has been one of the Hawks best shooters this season and Luke Kennard is playing his best basketball of the season, as evidenced by his 6-9 shooting day from three.

It was an interesting debut for Kispert and he will be a player to keep an eye on when Risacher does indeed return. He adds shooting to the Hawks and you can never have enough of that.