Hawks starter Flemings plays fewer minutes than the bench

The Atlanta Hawks depth chart says one thing about who starts, but the minutes say something a little different. Kingston Flemings is in the expected five, yet he plays fewer minutes than CJ McCollum and Aaron Wiggins, two players who come off the bench.

Jalen Johnson is the one name nobody argues about. He leads the Hawks in minutes a game, and the rest of the rotation is arranged around him. Everything here covers the 2026-27 season at the time of writing, with the Hawks 5-5 over their last 10 games.

Below: the five expected to start in Chicago, how the minutes really split, the bench from sixth man down, who shoots from three, and who is out.

The expected five for tomorrow's game at the Chicago Bulls is Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Dyson Daniels, Onyeka Okongwu, Flemings and Johnson. That is a guard-heavy group, with Okongwu as the one big man and Johnson as the forward.

That five comes from recent starts, minus anyone ruled out, and it allows for everyone on the injury report. Confirmed lineups arrive about 30 minutes before tip-off, so treat it as the likely group rather than a final answer. The Bulls v Hawks preview has the game in full.

Here is the expected five with the numbers they have put up this season. The minutes column is the one to watch.

Johnson plays 33.6 minutes a game across his 9 appearances, the most on the roster. He does a bit of everything with them: 19.2 points, 8.6 rebounds and 7.2 assists. He is first on the team in rebounds and assists and second in points.

Behind him the minutes run in a tidy line. Alexander-Walker is on 31.1, Daniels on 30.3 and Okongwu on 29.6, so four of the five starters sit between 29 and 34 minutes. Those four look like a settled core, and the full Atlanta Hawks depth chart lists them in that order.

Then there is Flemings. He has played 11 games and averages 21.9 minutes, well short of the other four starters. Wiggins averages 25.8 a game and McCollum 25.6, so both reserves play more than the player listed in the five.

The gap to the other starters is big: Okongwu, the next lowest, is on 29.6, which is 7.7 minutes more than Flemings (29.6 minus 21.9). When he is on the floor he makes it count, though, with 4.4 assists a game and 52.1% shooting, so the lighter workload is not coming from poor numbers.

For a closer look at every player's minutes, the full rotation list ranked by minutes sits on the depth chart page.

The depth chart reads its bench straight down the rotation list: McCollum at 26.1 minutes, Wiggins at 20.1, Luguentz Dort at 19.7 and Jock Landale at 14.6. One thing to flag plainly: those are the projected minutes for the Bulls game, so they differ from the season per-game figures. McCollum is on 25.6 a season, Wiggins 25.8, Dort 24.8 and Landale 15.1.

McCollum is the clear sixth man. He scores 13.6 a game and hands out 3.9 assists, more than Wiggins or Dort. Wiggins is the better scorer of the three at 14.9 points, which is third on the whole team, and he hits 41.9% from three.

Dort gives the Hawks something different. He scores 9.3 a game on 36.6% shooting overall and 35.0% from three, so his value is not mainly in the box score. All three have played every one of the 12 games.

Landale is the reserve big. He has played 8 games at 15.1 minutes a game and produces 6.1 points and 4.9 rebounds, the fourth-best rebounding number on the team. He is the only center beyond Okongwu on the list of players who have played, which fits his place at the end of the bench order.

Alexander-Walker is the scorer. He averages 21.9 points a game, the most on the team, and Johnson is second at 19.2. Wiggins (14.9), Okongwu (13.7) and McCollum (13.6) follow, so five players score at least 13.6 a game.

Daniels is the one who does the dirty work and the creating. He averages 5.8 assists and 3.0 steals a game, and the steals figure is more than double anyone else's (Alexander-Walker is next among the starters on 1.4). Johnson adds 7.2 assists and 8.6 rebounds, and Flemings chips in 4.4 assists. If you want to see who is expected to start for the Hawks across the whole game, that page has it.

To see how other clubs line up, the NBA starting lineups page covers every game.

The rotation divides sharply from three. Flemings leads the regulars at 42.9%, with Wiggins close behind at 41.9% and Alexander-Walker at 37.3%. At the other end, Daniels hits just 12.5% and Johnson 20.5%.

Two smaller names stand out, with a warning attached. Corey Kispert is at 55.6% and Zuby Ejiofor at 44.4%, but they have played only 6 and 7 games at 9.5 and 11.1 minutes, so those numbers come from very little court time.

Four Hawks are listed Out: Henri Veesaar (expected back 1 Jul), Mouhamed Gueye (20 Nov), Asa Newell (13 Nov) and Keshon Gilbert (13 Nov). None of them is in the expected five.

Newell is the only one with court time this season, 5 games at 11.0 minutes, so his absence trims the deep end of the rotation rather than the core. Veesaar, Gueye and Gilbert have no games played in the figures above. The league-wide NBA injuries page has the full picture.

The injury list is thin and leaves the main rotation almost untouched, so the picture on the depth chart should hold. Johnson, Alexander-Walker, Daniels and Okongwu carry the heavy minutes, while Flemings starts but shares the court time more like a reserve.

Check back about 30 minutes before the game for the confirmed five. Until then, the Hawks starters, bench order and injury report is the place to see it all in one spot, and the Bulls v Hawks preview covers the game itself.

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