Welcome to Atlanta Zacc Risacher

This Hawks roster owes that Bulls roster a good ol fashioned butt whoopin' when we finally face off this Fall.

Looking forward to Buzelis and Risacher starting a solid rivalry sooner than later.

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jayu70 · Post #67 » by **jayu70** » Sat Jul 20, 2024 11:49 am

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Post #68 » by **HMFFL** » Sat Jul 20, 2024 12:33 pm

Jamaaliver wrote:This Hawks roster owes that Bulls roster a good ol fashioned butt whoopin' when we finally face off this Fall.

Looking forward to Buzelis and Risacher starting a solid rivalry sooner than later.

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It should be exciting to watch.
I like Buzelis very much, but not enough to select him #1, but I wish him nothing but the best. He's a trash talker and seems to work very hard on his game.

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Post #69 » by **Jamaaliver** » Sat Jul 20, 2024 6:05 pm

Post #70 » by **Jamaaliver** » Mon Jul 22, 2024 3:06 pm

NBA Summer League Deep Dive on Risacher and 2024’s Standouts

What a time for the French! Four players in the first round of the 2024 NBA draft, three of whom were taken in the top 10, including the first (yet again) and second picks. Now we begin the process of vetting them on the court. I will admit that I came into the draft with skepticism—particularly about the two most-hyped French prospects. One quelled my worry; the other confirmed it.

Despite his obvious allure as a smooth-moving 6-foot-9 wing, I worried that no. 1 pick Zaccharie Risacher would lack a truly plus skill on offense. He operated heavily off the ball as a catch-and-shoot player for the past couple of years with JL Bourg Basket in the LNB Elite league and during his time on France’s U19 squad. Sometimes that’s a case of limited opportunity for a young player—JL Bourg’s touches in that area were mostly spoken for—but his game action there didn’t do a ton to inspire belief in me that he was an on-ball pressure cooker waiting for the right chance to explode. His handle was in need of growth, and his shooting, even off the catch, had been a trending-positive-lately sample that many people saw as potentially misleading.

...it’s an area where I’m still a bit dubious. Before the draft, some analysts mentioned Trey Murphy as a sort of comparative benchmark for what Risacher might become, seeing as they’re similarly sized and served similar roles pre-NBA. Murphy is clearly the more explosive athlete, and his shooting stroke is close to, if not exactly, what you want from a pure spacer.

Spoiler:
The high point of the arc of Trey’s jumper peaks at roughly the top of the numbers on the game clock, while Zaccharie’s seems consistently lower – it peaks at the bottom portion of the shot clock. Again, it’s inexact, but I don’t think it’s a stretch or incorrect to point out that there’s an inconsistency in the way Risacher powers (from load-up to finger tips) his release. Most of his Vegas makes from 3 have been rattlers, and at times you could see him leaning into it a bit to get that extra push.

Trey Murphy's Jump Shot

Zacch Risacher's Jump Shot
Risacher’s energy transfer could get smoother, both with strength and some mechanical work, which will aid his adjustment to the NBA 3-point line quite a bit, as the LNB line that gave him his most promising sample is 39 inches shorter. I wonder whether he’ll ever become a knockdown shooter at the level of Murphy, but I do think Risacher has decent touch. Couple that with some power and he should improve.

Outside of the shooting, what really stood out to me in person is just how comfortable and capable Risacher looked in the spatial sense, particularly when he was attacking closeouts—converting funky midrange shots or connecting the ball to the second side of the floor. There’s a basic “this is happening; I do this” improvisational language to basketball that can be taken for granted when a player doesn’t understand it, and it’s likely that the “be involved and a positive, but do stay out of the way” training that Risacher received in Europe is contributing a lot to his ability in that area.

The Ringer

jayu70 · Post #71 » by **jayu70** » Tue Jul 23, 2024 3:51 am

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Post #72 » by **Jamaaliver** » Tue Jul 23, 2024 1:31 pm

I know isolation scoring isn't really Risacher's strong suit, but improving his ballhandling and developing a mid range pull up jumper would really give him some juice when it comes to creating his own shot and exploiting mismatches. Him becoming a true 3-level scorer is his most direct path to All Star status.

Grading the Top Rookies at Las Vegas Summer League

Atlanta Hawks: C

Take our first grade of the exercise with a pretty hefty grain of salt.

Zaccharie Risacher only played in two games, and Nikola Đurišić broke his foot just over six minutes into his second appearance.

But in the very limited action we saw from these two, you could understand why the Atlanta Hawks took Risacher first overall and made a trade to land Đurišić

Zacch's combination of length and outside shooting was on display in his first appearance, when he had 18 points and hit three threes.

A smooth, high-volume shooter with a power forward's frame can do wonders for an offense, and it looks like there's room for Risacher to grow as a playmaker, too.

He shot the ball much worse in his second game, finishing the summer league 11-of-28 from the field and 4-of-16 from three, but you can see the vision.

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Post #73 » by **Jamaaliver** » Tue Jul 23, 2024 4:30 pm

John Hollinger wrote:NBA summer-league disappointments

Zaccharie Risacher, Hawks

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The draft’s top pick only played two games, but he showed flashes of spicy ball skills to go with impressive height for a wing at 6-10 (and the Hawks do see him as a true wing, by the way, somebody who can reliably guard twos and threes). He had a coast-to-coast glide for a lefty dunk in transition in his first game and a behind-the-back dribble into a behind-the-back dish to a corner shooter that didn’t make the evening highlight reels because the shot missed.
Spoiler:

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Risacher also showed a bit of craft with his off hand, using an in-and-out left-handed dribble to set up a lefty bank shot over Sarr’s length for his first summer bucket.
Spoiler:

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That said, the handle can still get loose — he had a mess of a turnover against San Antonio where it got away from him — and the shooting was erratic; he was only 4 of 16 from 3 in his two summer games and 3 of 7 from the line.

The shooting question looms over much of the projection with Risacher, given that his season in France was a bit of an outlier from his previous seasons. Him getting up 16 triples in 59 minutes is a positive sign on its own — shooters tell on themselves by where and when they launch as much as by how often it goes in, especially in small samples — and the Hawks are believers in his shooting.

More impressive might be Risacher’s focus on the right things. After his first summer-league game, in which he scored 18 points, he spent the postgame interview session lamenting that he didn’t play better defense.

Hawks summer-league coach Ronald Nored said Risacher’s attention to that detail shows he “cares about the right things.”

“How many guys are talking about their defense after a game? The fact he’s thinking about that, that he’s conscious of that and where he wants to get better … says a lot about who he is as a person and a pro,” Nored said.

Risacher still needs to get stronger and prove he can shoot consistently, but the pathway is there for a “Shane Battier with more offense” type of career. That sounds unsatisfying for a top pick, but that might just be the nature of this draft.

The Athletic

Post #74 » by **Jamaaliver** » Wed Jul 24, 2024 3:54 pm

Rookie of the Year Projections After Las Vegas Summer League

7. Zaccharie Risacher, Atlanta Hawks

The Atlanta Hawks figure to give Zaccharie Risacher immediate minutes and freedom after drafting him No. 1 overall. He does seem to be in a favorable spot with a creator/playmaker like Trae Young and a power forward in Jalen Johnson who can handle, pass and generate gravity.

Risacher will be in position to play to his strengths as a transition finisher, off-ball shooter and spot-up slasher—the same role he excelled in last season with JL Bourg.

He's just going to be too much of a complementary weapon to consistently put up scoring numbers. Risacher also still needs to work on making plays for himself in the half court. He'll be reliant on open-floor opportunities, being set up and consistently making threes.

Risacher won't put up many supporting assist or rebounding stats to strengthen a Rookie of the Year case. And though he could be named the starter, he's still likely to split minutes with Bogdan Bogdanovic, De'Andre Hunter and newly acquired Dyson Daniels, whose defense was presumably a key selling point to Atlanta's front office.

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