CJ McCollum sat out the Hawks' Oct. 5 game; Quin Snyder said they learned that morning he couldn't play, no reason given. That threw Kingston Flemings, a 19-year-old rookie, into his first game. "He competed. Saw some really good things," Snyder said, with "room for growth."
Rookie Kingston Flemings on his Hawks role: defend, pressure the ball and "get downhill, get CJ, Nickeil the ball" — creating for CJ McCollum and Nickeil Alexander-Walker. His summer: workouts with LeBron James, who was "already in there working out" at 5 a.m.