Hawks Shuffle Starting Lineup Amid Three-Game Defensive Meltdown

The Atlanta Hawks are officially shuffling the deck chairs. For Thursday night's matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Atlanta is rolling out a starting five of CJ McCollum, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Dyson Daniels, Jalen Johnson, and Onyeka Okongwu.

You do not tweak the formula when things are going great, and things are decidedly not going great in Atlanta right now. After a 128-81 opening-night demolition of the Charlotte Hornets that gave everyone false hope, the Hawks have dropped three straight games in spectacular fashion.

"Underdog NBA reported the lineup alert for Thursday's game."

Giving up 120 and 121 points in back-to-back losses to the Houston Rockets was bad enough. Following that up by letting the Miami Heat hang 129 on you is the kind of defensive performance that forces a coaching staff to lock themselves in a film room and make drastic changes.

This new starting unit is a clear cry for perimeter stops. Throwing Alexander-Walker and Daniels out there together is essentially building a wall of annoying, switchable wings to try and stop the bleeding. It is the basketball equivalent of putting two deadbolts on a door that just got kicked in three times.

From a fantasy and prop perspective, this clarifies the rotation hierarchy. McCollum is going to have the keys to the offense, while Okongwu officially gets the nod to anchor the middle and clean up the glass.

We will find out quickly if this defensive-minded group can actually get stops against Cleveland. If they get run off their home floor again, the panic meter in Atlanta is going to hit the red zone before we even make it to Halloween.