The Hawks have made Zaccharie Risacher the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NBA draft.
Atlanta unexpectedly moved up from No. 10 to No. 1 at the draft lottery last month, despite having just a 3% chance to get that first overall pick. While there was no consensus number one prospect in this year’s class like Victor Wembanyama a year ago, the jump to the top of the draft gave the Hawks the opportunity to take their pick of this year’s draft-eligible prospects.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter video link), the Hawks ultimately narrowed their choices to Risacher and Kentucky guard Reed Sheppard before selecting Risacher.
A 19-year-old French forward who was born in Spain, Risacher began his professional career with ASVEL Basket in France in 2021. He spent the past season on loan to another French team, JL Bourg, where he showed promise as a shooter, ball-handler, and versatile defender.
The 6’9″ forward averaged 13.1 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 1.1 assists in 24.0 minutes per game across 17 EuroCup appearances in 2023/24, with a .566/.561/.659 shooting line. In 32 contests in France’s LNB Elite, he averaged 10.1 PPG, 3.8 RPG, and 0.9 APG on .439/.352/.740 shooting.
This pick is just the beginning of what promises to be an eventful offseason in Atlanta. The Hawks are widely expected to trade one of their two star guards – Trae Young or Dejounte Murray – and may make additional changes to their rotation, with Clint Capela among the other Atlanta veterans mentioned as a trade candidate.
Disappointing choice.
way better than preferring poor man’s steph curry instead of a euro kid that was playing since 15-16 yo
Congrats to him goes down in history as a #1
What is Sarr story. Hawks are a mess imo.
Hawks did something…
But they didn’t trade Trae…
Still a long off-season. Bunch of moves ahead for Hawks, and quite frankly, it’s better that they didn’t trade for picks in this year’s draft.