Zaccharie Risacher is the great unknown at the top of the 2024 NBA Draft.
He is the odds-on favorite to go No. 1 just two days before the event, but the truth is that most people have never seen him play, outside of perhaps a few highlights.
In a weak draft without any known stars at the top, it can be easy to gravitate toward the unknown in the name of upside. But is it really upside with Risacher? Or it it mostly just uncertainty?
Let's look at a brief scouting report.
Risacher is French — which means you'd pronounce his last name Ree-zah-shay, per the NBA Draft Pronunciation Guide — and has played basketball most of his life, including playing for Tony Parker's affiliated team in the French league, something you may want to consider if Risacher ends up slipping in the draft as the Spurs are sitting at No. 4 and No. 8.
Is Risacher big? He's certainly not small at 6-foot-9, but he has a neutral wingspan and under a nine-foot standing reach, so he's not exactly huge for a wing either. Wingspan is particularly important for a perimeter wing defender, which means Risacher's lack of overwhelming size could limit him to defending mostly twos and threes.
More importantly, so too could his athleticism, or general lack thereof.
Risacher was an absolute disaster at the NBA Draft Combine. He had a poor sprint time and was also poor in lane agility, showing a lack of both top-end speed and lateral quickness. His 31-inch vertical was also troublesome. Go down the list and just about every combine outcome scored poorly.
Risacher received just a 70.58 bSPARQ score, a measure of a prospect's overall athleticism using the various combine tests. That mark makes him just a fourth percentile NBA athlete, with his two closest historical athletic comps being Adam Morrison and Emoni Bates, per Jared Dubin.
Suffice to say NBA wings need to be athletic. Risacher struggled at times to find consistent minutes in both the French league and in the Under-19 leagues against his peers, so how will his body and athleticism hold up against NBA athletes?
That's especially concerning regarding Risacher's presumed two-way upside, since it really limits his defensive upside in particular. Risacher is smart and has good defensive feel, so he typically has good positioning, and that's key for team defense. But he's a poor rebounder, especially considering his size, and the lack of athleticism limits how much he can contribute on that end.
What about the do-everything perception?
That's generally said more about Risacher's offensive projection, and there are certainly things to like.
Again, his basketball IQ shines through. Risacher cuts well off the ball, and he makes smart, quick decisions and moves intelligently — with and without the ball. He has good court vision and makes quick, sharp reads, though he typically had more turnovers than assists — in part because some of that court vision is wasted since he doesn't have the ball enough for that passing to be particularly valuable.
Risacher's lack of athletic prowess is also a problem here. He has a loose handle and doesn't have the ability to separate or beat his man without an advantage, so that means Risacher isn't particularly good (yet) at creating shots for himself or others. He's also not a three-level scorer, or even close. He didn't do much in the mid-range and had poor finishing numbers at the rim and rarely got there at all, an even bigger red flag.
The thing scouts seem to like most about Risacher outside of his size profile on the wing is the shot making, but even that calls for some skepticism.
Coming into the season, Risacher was nowhere near the top of scouts' lists, in part because the shot was somewhat flat and weak overall. Then, the shot took off to 39% and Risacher's draft stock soared. But that's a small sample with a questionable history, and even that sample includes just 23% from deep from January 31 forward.
The shot, like so much else about Risacher, is simply unproven.
It's a tough draft, and everyone's panning for gold — especially at the top.
Maybe Risacher is a superstar. Maybe he's not a star, but is at least a sure thing on the wing, with size and a rounded skill set every team can use — and maybe that's enough in a draft class like this.
I'm not sold on that version of Risacher because of my concerns with his shot profile and athleticism. I wouldn't touch him anywhere near the top of the draft, and I'm not even convinced he should go in the top 10.
Sometimes the mystery box does not need to be opened.
