Draft Preview: Zaccharie Risacher Could Be Ideal Raptors Prospect Moving Forward

The Toronto Raptors would be wise to consider Zaccharie Risacher as the kind of 3-and-D prospect to pair with Scottie Barnes near the top of this year's NBA draft

A general view as NBA commissioner Adam Silver speaks before the first round of the 2022 NBA Draft at Barclays Center / Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Zaccharie Risacher is the most divisive prospect in this year’s draft.

There are some who see the 6-foot-8, 19-year-old Frenchman as the No. 1 prospect in the class and there are nights where he certainly looks the part. When he’s on, there are few players that excite scouts like Risacher. He has the size and skill to be a do-it-all offensive talent at the NBA level.

But far too often this past year, Risacher left something to be desired. He battled extended shooting slumps and has fallen down draft boards according to some analysts.

What the Toronto Raptors think of Risacher remains to be seen but if the organization does keep its top-six protected first-round pick this weekend, there’s little doubt that Risacher will be a prospect worth keeping an eye on.

“He has tremendous upside as a jumbo wing with professional experience, but is an interesting evaluation,” said Nicholas Crain of FanNation’s NBA Draft site. “The positive flashes are remarkable, but he also disappears far too often within the flow of a game.”

Risacher is about as streaky of a shooter as they come. He’ll go extended stretches where he looks like he’s a total non-shooter. He played a 10-game stretch for JL Bourg in the French league this past season in which he shot just 8-for-38 from three-point range and looked nothing like the top-tier prospects scouts have viewed him as.

But over the course of the season, Risacher’s stats have evened out. He averaged 11.2 points per game while shooting 49% from the floor and 42% from behind the arc in 48 games this past year.

“There are few prospects with the potential versatility that Risacher could provide at the next level,” Crain added. “He just turned 19 and is one of the younger prospects in this class and has shown flashes of at minimum being an elite 3-and-D player with the potential to be a top three option on a playoff team one day if he can learn to leverage his frame and tools.”

His frame, however, does raise some questions about his defensive ability. He’s quite slender and if he’s not able to gain weight as he matures, it’s hard to envision him being a defensive wing-stopper.

That’s where the risk comes with Risacher and why scouts have been so divided on him. The downside is a player whose streakiness limits him offensively and whose size may create problems on the defensive end.

“Risacher is easily bumped off his spots and struggles against physicality on the defensive end,” Crain said. “He also lacks consistency in many areas and looks like a completely different player game-to-game. You can tell he understands the game at a high level, but he struggles to actually execute on a regular basis.”

For Toronto, Risacher is certainly an intriguing prospect at the top of the draft. He’s one of the few top-tier prospects who has shown he can be an above-average shooter and that has to pique the Raptors’ interest. He’d fit seamlessly beside Scottie Barnes on the offensive end and has the upside to be the kind of two-way player Toronto could pair with Barnes moving forward.

But, save for last year, the Raptors have traditionally opted to go with defense-first players and if Toronto does keep its top-six pick, there will certainly be more defensive-minded options available to be selected.