As he adjusts to life in the NBA, French forward Zaccharie Risacher will carry the target that comes with being the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft. He got his first taste of that experience in Friday’s Summer League debut as the Wizards’ Justin Champagnie, his primary defender, “chirped” at him throughout the game, writes Lauren Williams of The Journal-Constitution. Risacher was able to overcome that distraction, putting up 18 points, five rebounds and two assists while shooting 7-of-16 from the floor and going 3-of-9 from three-point range.
“I try to play the way we want me to play,” he said. “So, like I said before, during the draft process, I’m ready to do whatever the coaches want me to do. So, if coach wants me to take threes, I’m gonna take threes. And if he wants me to be aggressive, I’m gonna be aggressive and that’s just a part of the player that I am and express myself on every side of every little thing.”
Williams observed that Risacher seemed comfortable with the faster pace and the greater spacing in the NBA game, even though his outside shot wasn’t falling. He expressed disappointment with his performance on defense, which he hopes to improve when the Hawks face San Antonio on Sunday.
“I think I didn’t show like my full ability on defense, and I’m kind of mad at that because that’s not the player that I am,” Risacher said. “And the defensive part is really important in basketball, and I feel like my team needs that too from me, so that’s gonna be the main thing for me to deal with and improve on right away.”
There’s more on the Hawks:
- Second-year big man Mouhamed Gueye exchanged trash talk with Washington’s Alex Sarr in both English and French during their intense battle Friday night, Williams states in a separate story. After appearing in just six NBA games as a rookie, Gueye is hoping to prove that he’s ready for a larger role. “Mo’s been in the gym all summer working and all that,” Hawks Summer League coach Ronald Nored said. “And I thought he did a good job with it. He took the challenge defensively. I thought that fueled him offensively. The running, the cutting, the movement of the ball, we need that for Mo and I think he took the challenge.”
- Summer League is an opportunity for Serbian guard Nikola Djurisic to prove that he’s worthy of a roster spot, Williams adds in another piece. The Hawks traded up to take Djurisic with the 43rd pick, but they haven’t indicated whether he’s in their plans for this season. They have a pair of two-way contract slots still open.
- Vit Krejci‘s new four-year, $10.19MM (minimum-salary) contract includes $3.66MM in guaranteed money, league sources tell Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link). Krejci’s $2.16MM salary for the upcoming season is fully guaranteed, followed by a $1.5MM guarantee on his $2.4MM salary for 2025/26, a non-guaranteed $2.7MM salary for the third year and a $3MM team option on the final season.
When we drafted AJ Griffin I was really pleased & throughout his rookie season that selection looked even better. He seemed like the type of guy that could eventually take Bogdan’s place as our 6th man scorer. However last season was a disaster for him on numerous fronts & it became apparent that scoring is his only plus skill. Djurusic is much, much more similar to Bogdan & fits much cleaner as his eventual successor. His vicious dunk on Alex Sarr on Friday night was def his big highlight but he impressed me with his toughness, ball-handling & positional size as well. Can’t really see him having a role with the big team this season but he should get a lot of run in College Park.
Risacher is a kid I been watching for years now. He sorta disappointed me most times I saw him as far as his production but his potential was always obvious. He projects as a better version of Keegan Murray imo. Basically similar game as Keegan but Zacch is basically better in every way (except strength). Keegan was a few yrs older as a rookie than Zacch is now & Zacch won’t have the starting role that Keegan had as a rookie. So chances are low that Zacch sets the rookie record for 3s like Keegan did but he’s gonna be a really nice piece for us at forward.
Backup pg is still a spot where we need to add a vet tho. I’m hoping for Markelle Fultz… link to m.youtube.com
Pretty much agree on everything. Like you, I was hoping for more from Griffin, but this season was a tough one. Maybe he will bounce back.
I saw enough of Djurusic and Risarcher on Friday to know they have the skills, but they must remain hard nosed and fearless. Players seem to come to Atlanta and lose confidence or start playing soft.
I certainly hope those three ramp up the toughness and Jalen doesn’t drop. Hunter lost his tenacity but seemed to be getting a little of it back last year instead of settling for lazy threes.
Hawks needed more than just players to fit around Trae, they need a mentality change.
We traded AJ to get Djurusic, AJ is in Houston now. And tbh if I had to guess id guess that he doesn’t bounce back, not in Houston anyway. But yea you hit on perhaps our main issue as a team, toughness. We been lacking on toughness ever since the Dermarre/Millsap/Horford days tbh. Adding guys like Dejounte, Saddiq & Wes Matthews Jr helped us move in the right direction as far as being a tougher, more tenacious group but even with them we still lacked toughness imo. Now with those guys gone we’re again in danger of being soft. Risacher has all the tools & skills but he sorta me of a French DeAndre Hunter fr as far as his mentality. I like Quin Snyder to an extent but bringing in a tough minded defensive focused coach might be the best way to bring some toughness to the team.
Good call. Completely forgot he was part of that.