2024 NBA Draft Prospect: Zaccharie Risacher

Zaccharie Risacher enters the 2024 NBA Draft as a ready-to-shoot wing with size, length, and versatility.

2024 NBA Draft prospect: Zaccharie Risacher (JL Bourg-en-Bresse)

Height without shoes, Weight, and Age when NBA season begins: 6’9”, 195 pounds, 19 years old

Standing reach: 8’11” | Wingspan: 6’10”

Mock average: 1st

NBA player ranking for access to combine information: 2nd - 6th (for teams drafting 1st to 15th)

Who is Risacher?

Risacher is a 19-year old forward currently playing with JL Bourg-en-Bresse in France. Risacher is 6’9” and he mainly plays the 3 or 4 for JL Bourg. Risacher has started in 42 of 54 games in all competitions for JL Bourg this season.

What are Risacher’s numbers on offense and what were my observations when watching film?

In all competitions, Risacher has averaged 10.5 points and 0.9 assists to 1.5 turnovers in 22.8 minutes per game.

Risacher attempts 8 shots (45.2% accuracy), 3.5 three point attempts (38.1% accuracy), and 2.7 free throw attempts (70.8% accuracy).

When we look at Risacher’s shot diet by 2s and 3s, 57% of his attempts have been 2PT shots, where he’s made 51% of those shots. 43% of his attempts have been 3PT shots, where he’s made 38% of those looks.

The LNB 3-point line distance is about 22 feet from the basket, similar to the distance of an NBA corner three, however, not as far as an arc NBA three.

When searching for whole game replays for Bourg’s games, I had trouble finding entire games online. I was however able to find a full game of their February 13 matchup against Nancy Basket. I also found condensed replays of some of their recent games. Here are my film observations from watching those games.

Creation

• In most of the offensive sets for Bourg, Risacher is usually stationed in the corners to begin sets. On some possessions, he showed his creation by catching in the corner, dribbling inside by the path of the arc or baseline, and he would either put up a floater attempt, use the pro hop to make a layup through traffic, or there were some sequences where he used his passing skills to find cutters while drawing in the defense.

• While he didn’t get to run many pick-and-rolls, in some of the few observations, he made the right read and pass to get the rolling big the ball near the basket.

• Risacher demonstrates the ability to push the ball up the floor and then once he’s over halfcourt, he’ll pass the ball to the lead ball handler.

Shooting

• Risacher is very comfortable as a catch-and-shoot 3PT shooter. He’s able to shuffle his feet along the baseline, use off-ball screens, and he reads the floor well to make himself a target for a drive-and-kick 3PT shots.

• Risacher has his hands out ready for the catch and he doesn’t need a lot of time to get a 3PT shot off, especially with the hop 3PT shot.

• Risacher has good form on his shot and he follows through on the release of his jump shot from distance.

Overall, Risacher’s ready-skill he’ll immediately bring to a team is outside shooting, with the ability to find open spots out on the arc. He’s shown flashes of being able to create for himself and others off secondary action, but his development with that skill-set will depend more-so on which team drafts him and how much leeway they’ll allow him to have for more frequent possessions with the ball in his hands. That was one thing I noticed in my film observations, often he didn’t get to initiate the offense for his team.

What were Risacher’s numbers on defense and what were my observations when watching film?

In his 22.8 minutes per game, Risacher is averaging 3.5 rebounds, 0.9 steals, 0.4 blocks, and 2.4 fouls.

Here were my film observations of Risacher on defense:

Off ball Defense

• Whether the player he was guarding was smaller than him or of similar height, Risacher often was tasked with guarding the player who usually stood out in the corners, and wasn’t as involved in initiating the offense.

• When Risacher was defending his opponent up on the arc, he was able to be more active defensively. If the ball handler tried to drive by Risacher's teammate in the middle of the floor, Risacher stuck his hand in the driving lane to try to create a steal. A similar sequence happened on a possession when one of his teammates tipped a dribble away and Risacher dove to the floor for the steal.

• On another possession when guarding his opponent up top, Risacher sniffed out a bad pass almost cross-court and he got in the passing lane to make the steal and then he took off the other way.

Versatility

• Risacher has the size, length, and speed to defend guards, wings, and some bigs, that won’t use their size against him in the post.

Rim Protection

• Though Risacher has a lot of size and length, his timing on blocking shots is still developing.

• When having to guard post players, players with size and creative footwork use their physicality to create space against him to score in the paint.

• On one possession in a game, Risacher demonstrated his speed, length, and jumping ability, by completing a chase down block where he timed the block perfectly in mid-air to swat the shot off the backboard.

Perimeter Defense

• As mentioned above, he wasn’t usually guarding a player involved in a lot of actions for the offense, but when he did have to guard up top on a P&R situation, he usually switched onto the big. This happened frequently, so this could have been a tactic designed by the coaching staff.

• There were a few possessions where Risacher showed his lateral quickness, like a possession where it was about to be halftime, he defended the inbound ball handler up to midcourt and got a steal. On another play, this time in transition, one player had the ball in the corner and he was going to deliver a pass to the arc 3PT shooter. Risacher read this and was able to deflect the pass out of bounds.

Overall, defense will be an area where Risacher will continue to develop. He has the length, speed, and size to build a skill set on that side of the ball, but based on my observations of who the team had him guarding in games, that’s an area where the coaching staff wasn’t ready to put him more on-the-ball.

What do the draft experts say about Risacher?

Kevin O’Connor of the Ringer: Catch-and-shoot threat, positional versatility, movement shooter

Jonathan Givony of ESPN: Combination of perimeter shooting, defensive versatility, and youth

Krysten Peek of Yahoo! Sports: Great length at the wing and ability to get hot from the 3-point line

What are Risacher’s NBA comps?

My comp: Michael Porter Jr. on offense

Kevin O’Connor of the Ringer: Shades of Michael Porter Jr.

NBADraftRoom.com: Bigger Mike Miller, Deni Avdija plus

Do the Spurs have interest in Risacher?

Back in late March, French reporter Theo Quintard reported Spurs CEO R.C. Buford was watching Risacher play in a game. He also reported Spurs owner Peter J. Holt had already seen Risacher play in a game.

So I would say yes, the team has registered some level of interest in Risacher.

How would Risacher fit with the Spurs?