CJ McCollum joined the Atlanta Hawks midstream last season. This fall he gets a proper on-ramp, and he told Lauren Williams of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that it is the thing he is most looking forward to. “I’m just excited to be able to have a full training camp,” McCollum said. “Like I was traded in the middle of the season, so I’m excited about that. Excited about the growth and the potential that a lot of the young guys have.”
The midseason version worked well enough. Acquired from Washington in January, McCollum averaged 18.7 points and 4.1 assists in 41 games for Atlanta, and the Hawks closed the regular season by winning 20 of their final 26. That run carried them into a first-round series against New York, where Atlanta took a 2-1 lead before the Knicks ripped off what became a 13-game winning streak on the way to the title.
McCollum framed that series exit as tuition rather than a setback. “It teaches you how to be better and make moments,” he told Williams. “It teaches you how to execute. Also teaches you how to prepare. So I’m really just excited about the opportunity to have some more growth moments together as a team.”
For a roster this young, a veteran guard with more than a decade in the league is most valuable in exactly the setting McCollum is describing: September practices, where habits get installed before the games count. Half a season together produced a 20-6 finish and a playoff berth. The bet inside the building is that a full camp, with the same group returning and the lessons of the New York series still fresh, raises the floor from the opening tip instead of from January on.
For fantasy purposes, McCollum enters draft season as a stable mid-round target: a defined starting role, a settled offense and a full camp all point toward his scoring and assist numbers holding close to the 18.7 and 4.1 he posted after the trade. The bigger swing is on Atlanta’s young perimeter players, whose usage should benefit from a full year of McCollum organizing the second unit and closing games.
