CJ McCollum

Through the first four games of 2026-27, McCollum's workload has been lighter than his career norm. He played 21.9 minutes in the win over Dallas on 2026-10-16, scoring 7 points with 2 rebounds and 4 assists. Against Indiana on 2026-10-10 he put up 12 points and 5 rebounds in 18.5 minutes in a win. He added 14 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists in 19.4 minutes in the win over San Antonio on 2026-10-08. He did not play in the loss to Memphis on 2026-10-05 because of the nose and head issue that had him day-to-day. Atlanta has won three of those four games.

In 2025-26, McCollum played 76 games for Atlanta and averaged 18.7 points, 3.3 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 0.8 steals and 0.5 blocks in 29.8 minutes. He shot 45.5 percent from the field, 37.5 percent from three and 77.2 percent from the line, with a true shooting mark of 56.6 percent. His usage rate sat at 24.7 percent and his plus-minus was plus-1.2, solid production for a guard carrying a significant share of Atlanta's offense. Turnovers were modest at 1.8 per game given that usage. Those numbers are from last season, not this one, but they are the clearest picture of what McCollum still brings at 35: scoring, shot-making from deep and a steady hand running the offense.

McCollum's last extended run of games last season came in a stretch against the Knicks. On 2026-04-20 he scored 32 points with 3 rebounds and 6 assists in 35.4 minutes in a win, his biggest scoring night in the available log. Three days later, on 2026-04-23, he added 23 points and 5 rebounds in another win. There were tougher nights too: 26 points in a loss on 2026-04-18, 17 points in a loss on 2026-04-25, 6 points in a loss on 2026-04-28 and 11 points in a loss on 2026-04-30. Atlanta went 2-4 across those six games, but McCollum stayed on the floor for 32-plus minutes in four of them.

McCollum is in his 13th NBA season, a 6-2, 190-pound guard out of Lehigh who wears No. 3 for Atlanta. He turned 35 this year, making him one of the more experienced players on the roster, and his game is still built around shot creation and scoring off movement rather than size. Lehigh is an uncommon pedigree at this stage of a career — he is one of the rare current NBA players to come out of a Patriot League program. After 13 years in the league, he has settled into a role as a scoring guard who can also run an offense, which the usage and assist numbers from last season back up.