Zaccharie Risacher doesn't have to be a savior for Hawks. He just needs to be good.
ATLANTA — It would be difficult to have a strong opinion about Zaccharie Risacher, the NBA’s newly-minted No. 1 overall draft pick, unless JL Bourg of the LNB Élite league was somehow part of your basketball viewing menu last season.
But there’s a reason that the people who actually get paid to pay attention to this stuff — and whose jobs depend on getting it right — have liked Risacher since he was 16 years old.
In the modern NBA, tall wings who can shoot from the perimeter and defend multiple positions are among the rarest commodities.
Just ask the New York Knicks, who are about to pay OG Anunoby more than $200 million despite never averaging more than 17.1 points per game and just gave up a ransom of draft picks for Mikal Bridges.
Just ask the Boston Celtics, who literally built an NBA champion around two wings in the same milieu.
Or, conversely, just ask the Atlanta Hawks, who have had a massive hole at that spot their lineup ever since building a team around Trae Young. They spent handsome draft capital on De’Andre Hunter, who has not delivered as expected. They took a shot with Cam Reddish, who is now on his fourth NBA team.
In this league, there are point guards aplenty, off-ball guys who can stroke the three and a growing number of bigs who can step out and hit a jumper. But that combination of height, shooting and ability to disrupt on the defensive end?
It’s the hardest archetype in basketball to find. And Risacher, who measured nearly 6-foot-9 without shoes at the European combine, is the only one in this draft who fits.
"Shooting being at a premium in this league, especially for a guy who’s 6-10, is really, really helpful," Hawks general manager Landry Fields said.
That explains why he went No. 1. It does not explain whether he deserved to. And it certainly doesn't offer any guarantees about whether the Hawks and Fields, their 35-year-old top basketball decision-maker, nailed this one or messed it up so badly that their entire front office will be looking for new jobs in a few years.
As always with the draft, time will tell. This year, in particular, seems destined to be one with more than a few picks that will look ridiculous down the road.
But for any Atlanta fans who are less-than-enthused by drafting a player whose ceiling is more likely to be a really good piece on a winning team rather than a superstar, it's at least worth acknowledging that he checks a very specific box.
It's a little bit like how quarterbacks move up the board every year in the NFL draft, even in a year where none of them look like a sure thing. If one of them hits, it’s a rare-enough commodity that it's worth the shot.
You could say the same about Risacher. It’s quite possible there are players drafted behind him Wednesday who will have better careers. But in a year where all the top prospects had massive questions connected to their viability as the No. 1 pick, Atlanta will have the kind of team-building piece that is hard to find lower in the draft and almost impossible to get in free agency.
"He's 6-10, he’s got the ability to play both sides of the ball, be a versatile defender, a really good shooter and high-IQ type of player," Fields said. "The amount of development he's had up until this point is fantastic and he’ll be 19 all throughout next year. He's got all the things we look at offensively and defensively for a well-rounded player."
Now, another important question: Is Risacher good enough?
Who knows. Almost impossible to say, especially for someone who did not spend this winter and spring watching the French basketball league.
But Risacher has been playing against grown men, and he more than held his own, averaging 10.1 points in 22 minutes and shooting 35 percent from the 3-point line. He was especially good in the playoffs that recently concluded, averaging 15 points. Those are legit stats for a teenager in the rugged European pro leagues.
(For context, Luka Doncic averaged 12.8 points in 24 minutes during his last year with Real Madrid. Any 18- or 19-year-old scoring double-figures in a top-level European league can probably play.)
Risacher also has an appealing pedigree. His father, Stéphane, was a six-time All-Star in France and a champion in Spain and Greece. It’s almost like he came out of a lab with all the attributes an NBA franchise would want in a guy that you’re using with a pick this important.
And if it works, he's the type of player with real positional size that Atlanta desperately needs. As mentioned earlier, the Hawks’ attempts to find a good wing with “three-and-D” skills who can work with Young have all fallen flat. And unlike teams that usually pick at No. 1, Atlanta's roster isn't a disaster. The Hawks have been disappointing the last couple of years, but this isn't a total rebuild. They have some core guys in place, including power forward Jalen Johnson, who look like real, competitive pieces on a future Eastern Conference contender. They simply need Risacher to be good, not a savior.
Asked in the moments after he became an Atlanta Hawk which current NBA player he compared himself to the most, Risacher mentioned Klay Thompson.
“I like the way he plays, and I think we have the same game,” Risacher said.
If that’s even close to how he turns out, it will be a No. 1 pick well-spent.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Dan Wolken on social media @DanWolken