Welcome to adulthood, Zaccharie Risacher.
The first pick in the 2024 NBA draft spent his 21st birthday glued to the Atlanta bench in the Hawks’ 122-116 loss to Cleveland on Wednesday, the first “DNP-coach’s decision” — or healthy scratch — of his career.
Risacher started the first two-thirds of the season but was removed from the starting group after a moribund 128-97 home loss to Miami dropped Atlanta to 27-31, with CJ McCollum taking his place. Since then, the Hawks have gone 18-4 and risen from the fringes of the playoff chase to the fifth position in the East. (Risacher did make one more start, in a game that All-Star forward Jalen Johnson missed).
When Risacher first went to the bench, the Hawks talked about continuing to get him minutes and progress his development. However, the Hawks’ emergence in the East playoff chase has complicated that objective. Risacher’s minutes also dwindled once newly acquired Jonathan Kuminga returned to full strength from a knee injury; with Kuminga overlapping positionally with Risacher, Atlanta rarely needs to turn to both.
That became apparent when Risacher played a career-low seven minutes in Monday’s loss to New York. After that game, Hawks coach Quin Snyder blamed circumstances rather than anything Risacher had done, and said the Hawks are tightening bench minutes because the current stretch is essentially Atlanta’s playoffs (Atlanta could have clinched a playoff spot with a win).
“I think if you look at what I’ve been talking about, with this being the playoffs, I think Zach’s been done all the things that I’ve talked about that we’ve asked,” said Snyder.
“We only have so many guys that we can actually put in the game, and in certain situations we’re playing Nickeil (Alexander-Walker) and Dyson (Daniels) and those guys more minutes, (so) people just get squeezed. JK (Kuminga) played a little more, so those minutes come from somewhere.”
“So, it’s not anything about one player. That’s just the game … I think we’re past the point where we’re looking at individual players trying to dissect whether they should be playing more or less.”
“The guys that are out there the majority of the time are the Dysons and Nickeils and JJs (Jalen Johnson), Zach gets caught in that. We need him to keep doing the things that he’s been doing. I mean, he’s great. He’s been crashing the glass. Those are big plays for us.”
On Wednesday, however, Snyder went a step further. With Corey Kispert inserted into the rotation ahead of Risacher, there were no minutes left.
With Atlanta’s last two opponents (Cleveland and New York) also being the Hawks’ most likely playoff foes, Risacher’s playing time situation doesn’t seem likely to change in the near future.