Atlanta Hawks Rookie Zaccharie Risacher Reflects On A Promising 2024-25 Rookie Season

Although the Hawks' season ended last night after losing to the Miami Heat in the play-in, one reason for optimism about the ceiling of the Hawks is Zaccharie Risacher. After being taken with the first overall pick, the expectations for Risacher were limited and there was a lot of discourse over whether the Hawks made the right choice.

To be clear, it will take time before it is definitive on whether Atlanta made the right pick. Wings like Risacher take a ton of time to develop - he's only 20 years old and he is an international prospect. There's a lot to adjust to in the NBA and it's not clear at the moment how high his ceiling is. However, when viewing the totality of his rookie season with the Hawks, it's hard to not be excited.

After starting the season slow, Risacher took his play to a new level in the second half of the season. His post-All-Star break stats of 14.6 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.2 assists on 49.8/40.7/71.1 shooting splits are encouraging and align closer with the player the Hawks were envisioning when they took him with the first overall pick.

He spoke to the media today in his exit interview and here are some of the insights he offered in that conversation.

What do you take away from your rookie season?

I feel like I learned so much from this season. I experienced so many things and I'm grateful for this opportunity to be able to play with my teammates in this organization and be able to compete every night. It's been great and that's why I want it for me. I'm super excited about next season.

Was there a "welcome to the league" moment that you didn't anticipate happening?

I don't think so. I just embraced being a rookie in this league and with all of my teammates - I don't really have a specific moment. It was just the whole process. It was fun and exciting.

You had some really strong moments - what do you take from those games?

It was good to see that by playing right and playing my game, I could score the ball a lot and have great games. Every time, I did the same routine and I was the same as always. I was trying to do the right play everytime and play hard. It's good to see that I'm capable of those types of performances. I feel like the consistency every day speaks for itself. I didn't need those performances to see and prove that I can be a good player every day. Just being around and doing the work every day, competing all night, that made me think I could stay in this league and that's what I wanted to do when I got here.

What is the next step for Zaccharie Risacher?

I'm going to keep working on my body. It's kind of hard to add pounds during the season - the offseason is really the time when you can do it and focus on strength and lifting. For basketball, I want to focus on ball-handling, finishing and then also do some of the loud things on the court. I just want to step up and be a better player when I come back in September.

What were the conversations you were having with your team and yourself when Jalen Johnson went down? Did some of that fall on you and was that pressure?

That wasn't pressure - it felt like injuries were definitely a big part of the season and it was a big hit for us to lose JJ. We had to keep it going and I just wanted to play hard and play like I was playing before. I was just keeping the good work up and I'm glad I could help my team for this hard path during our season. I want to be able to step up for my teammates and that's the type of player I want to be. You got my back, I got your back.

Do you know if you're doing Summer League?

I didn't talk about it yet with the front office or with my coach, but I think I'll know soon enough.

What are you looking forward to most about being able to go back home after being away for so long?

The first thing is just going to be to hang out with my sister. I miss her a lot and I just want to be with her - and probably the food too.

Will you be playing for Team France this summer?

That's what I want to do. I want to be a part of this team and competing for a medal. I'm going to do whatever it takes to be on that team - that's what I want and I think it would be great for me. The national team is different - I have a lot of pride representing my country. It is like the NBA is a dream for me, and the national team is a dream too for me, so I'm just glad to be able to pretend to play in those two dreams."

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