Was Zaccharie Risacher ACTUALLY Worth the #1 Overall Pick?
Zaccharie Risacher has been one of the best rookies in the NBA since the start of the new calendar year. His scoring efficiency is among the highest in the NBA among rookies, and he continues to string together one solid performance after another for the Atlanta Hawks. So it’s worth asking, is he the rookie of the year? And more importantly, should he have gone #1 overall?
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00:00 Intro
01:20 Why Did the Hawks Draft Him?
01:59 Elite Shot Mechanics
03:35 More Than Just a Shooter
05:36 Off-Ball Genius
06:41 Doing A Lot With A Little
08:23 Can He Defend?
09:20 Should He Have Gone #1?
#ZaccharieRisacher #NBA #AtlantaHawks
40 Comments
Who’s your pick for ROTY? 👇
Zach has improved significantly and will get better with experience and strength. His defense will be the key to his development.
I feel like he has been the perfect role player for the hawks in just his first season (second half at least) and yet nobody is talking about him
Also the fit in atlans is really good just sad that the team is so mid
He has the intangibles. He understands the game. Hawks are building a system. He is the perfect person to play with Trae Young. Hawks did a good job on building this team with quality players.
Best rookie 2024 Stephon Castle all day every day 4sho
It took Franz 25-5-5 to get some outside noise, ATL fans shouldn’t worry. They got all the pieces molding
Show this to Kevin O’Connor!
Stephon Castle is better than him but I think for what the Hawks needed it was worth it
Controversial pick?
This was the weakest draft class in 10 years.
There were no standout stars 😅
Zacc is already a 6'10 Derrick White, Michael Porter Jr., Mikal Bridges type at 19 years old! VERY valuable in today's NBA that the Knicks paid 5 1st round picks for that kind of player. That's my ROTY.
No
roty
he’s gonna be good man
Amazing vid! Every point I’ve been making about Zacc was echoed here. He might not be the ROTY, but I expect 3-5 years down he’ll set himself apart as one of the 3 best players from this draft
Landry drafted him as he rated him the best in the draft, he is not a support guy or a role player to fit in. He will be a star in his own right and has all the attributes and work ethic to do so.
As a Hawks' fan this were a very good breakdown. I was someone that was fine w/ the pick but I have to admit I think his ceiling is much higher than I thought. He will never be a guy you pass the ball to clear out for…but I think he can be a Klay type star if that makes sense. Playing with a true creator like Trae means his weaknesses are minimized. I also think he's taller than the cited height because you can see he's the same size if not taller than guys he shouldn't be based on the height.
The thing that has me so encouraged is that you can see his shooting is only going to get better (as it has). And he will get stronger. The big flaw in his game now is he can finish a little soft at times and NBA guys punish that. As the year has gone on I've already seen a huge improvement there (notice the recent dunk highlights). He was playing scared early but now it seems he has a plan and is mostly a confident finisher. That should only get better with time. I think Atlanta got a player.
realizing if Luka Doncic runs this team is Wild
He is the Stephon Castle of rookies.
He’s pretty good , real solid on defense and can shoot
He will become a swiss army knife 🗡️
I like this pick. Atlanta got lucky in the lottery but they didn't really need another star. Can't have two Trae Young's on one team. They just went with a great player who's gonna give them what they need, and it allows him to grow into his game with less of the pressure than a number 1 pick usually faces. I imagine he'll be a really impactful player later in his career.
Awesome breakdown, Alex! As a Hawks fan I'm really excited about Risacher's potential. Your nuanced and in-depth take was great to watch.
I completely understood why he went 1st. But i thought it should have been sarr personally
Stephon Castle and Risacher are the best rookies of this class. Both are solid defenders with a huge upside on offense. Castle though takes the ROTY but both will play very very important roles for their teams going forward.
No one is sayin it
But the 8th pick in the 2025: draft would have gone number one in 2024.
Who?
Not every draft got a Wemby or a Cooper Flagg, he's the best rookie this season imo
He's definitely going to be an all star, he's going to develop into a 6'8 Klay Thompson imo
I think he is 6"9, perhaps even 6"10. I suspect he grew a bit this season, actually.
In the playoffs you're only as good as your 5th best player on the floor. Profiles like Zach remind me of Battier, Batum, Derrick White. Having a smart, lengthy guy that can shoot, finish plays and play good defense is extremely important when you're trying to win. They single handedly win you playoff games because the opps thought they could let him shoot!
I see AlexHoops, I click play and like
If I see one huge quality for him, it’s consistency. He scored like 11 pts every nights for all the season and he was pissing me off, like I felt he could do more. Now, he’s just consistently scoring more than 18 points per game with pretty much the same minutes. I feel a special player right there who can learn fast, hopefully the Hawks win the play in so he can get some playoff xp
Saying he won't be a shot creator as a 20 yr old in his first yr is so crazy to me. Why do we never give players time to get better
YES ‼️
Just listened to you on the athletic NBA daily. I'm so happy you're getting recognized for the great work you've been putting in in the last years! Congratulations buddy!! 👏 Now I hope you'll be soon on a Saturday slam and jam playing Andrew on Andrew vs the beat!! 😂 Cheers
No
Risacher will become more than a good role player. He's already a good player, even if it requires confirmation. But in 3 years he could be a star. He's an elite shooter, who is showing more and more skills with the ball, a very good defender, probably soon an elite defender. He's smart, unselifsh, plays with great energy. H will be for sure a winning player. He could be a star.
Zaccharie risacher was drafted because the hawks believed he could guard from 1 to 4 and he can also be a floor spacer who can shoot threes and he is a great finisher but the main weakness for zaccharie is that his shooting is inconsistent like his shooting form needs to change and the way he shoots he needs to be more pickier with his shooting and also that he needs to limit his usage shooting threes as it could impact the hawks offensive end and I think if he could improve these issues he will be a good player not the best but this is something that will,help for his career
Yes for this year
I don't understand how people could and still can say that this draft was weak when the 3 first picks are future top players like Risacher, Sarr and Castle, they'll end up multi-time all star, they'll probably win titles, and I think they are futur Hall of famers.