The depth and width of Atlanta basketball has been on display yet again. The ascension of former UGA and Holy Spirit Prep star Anthony Edwards to NBA superstar is one example. Wheeler High graduate Jaylen Brown being named NBA Finals MVP with the Boston Celtics is another. And, for good measure, two more players with roots in the metro area – Stephon Castle from Newton High and Isaiah Collier from Wheeler – were both taken in the first round of last week’s draft.
Professional basketball players from Atlanta are everywhere.
So no one ought to be surprised that the player that the Hawks took with the first overall pick – French wing player Zaccharie Risacher – played in the French league this past season with a teammate with a 404 phone number.
That would be Bryce Brown, who starred at Columbia High and Tucker High before going on to lead Auburn to its first-ever Final Four berth, in 2019. Now 26, he has since played in the G League and leagues in Turkey and Poland.
“That’s my guy,” Brown said of Risacher in a recent phone interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
No one from Atlanta, not even Hawks general manager Landry Fields, has been with Risacher in a basketball setting more than Brown. The two were together on a near-daily basis – practicing, playing, traveling – from the end of last summer to the completion of JL Bourg’s season in late May. For Hawks fans wanting to learn more about the 19-year-old from Lyon, France, Brown is worth listening to.
“I would say he’s a ‘3-and-D’ specialist,” Brown said. “Like, he can guard every position, and then I would say he can knock down shots. I wouldn’t say, like, he’s a primary ballhandler on a team, but I feel like he has craftiness to his game at his size. To be 6-10, he can handle the rock, he can make some plays, but I think his primary skill set will be knocking down shots. And he’s athletic, too.”
It jibes with what the Hawks have touted about Risacher — his ability to play well on offense and defense, his defensive versatility, his basketball intelligence and shooting ability.
A question about Risacher before the draft was his athletic ability. One NBA scout called him “just an ok athlete” in a text to The AJC. Brown has heard the critique and begged to differ.
He said he saw Risacher make huge strides in his athleticism over their season together, calling it “a night-and-day difference.” He saw Risacher being able to put down dunks that he hadn’t been able to previously and combining his increased strength and leaping ability to become more effective on the fast break.
“Every time you give him the ball in transition, he takes it, he does a move – (maybe) behind his back – and he’ll go dunk it,” Brown said. “He was a very electric player this year.”
To Brown, Risacher’s shooting ability, his skill at the rim and his defense are his three greatest strengths. At JL Bourg, he guarded everyone from point guards to centers.
Two areas where Risacher can improve go hand in hand – his ball handling and his strength. At 195 pounds, Risacher needs to add strength and weight.
“He’s got to fill out,” Brown said.
Brown believes that part will come due to the fact that Risacher is but 19 and that he has excellent work habits. Added strength, Brown thinks, will help with his ball handling.
“I wouldn’t say he has to become a better ballhandler, it’s a (physically) stronger ballhandler,” he said.
Brown’s confidence that Risacher will make strength gains speaks to a significant impression that he made on him in their season together.
“He works hard,” Brown said. “He works very, very hard, extremely hard.”
Brown recalled Risacher being in the gym up to two hours before the team practiced, developing his game.
“He would sometimes already lift weights and then shoot and then he’d practice,” Brown said. “Crazy work ethic.”
It’s coupled with a humble attitude, even when Risacher was being tagged as a potential high draft pick. Brown called him one of the best teammates that he has ever had and predicted that Hawks players “will love him.” At JL Bourg, Risacher listened intently to his teammates when they told him how he could improve and put the advice to practice.
“I’ve never seen a player get better every single day” like Risacher did this past year, Brown said.
It’s that assessment that might be as confirming that Risacher can flourish in the NBA as anything that Brown said. He has the right size and athletic ability and can shoot the ball. The unknown is how much Risacher, who turned 19 in April, can get stronger and better.
To that end, Brown sees a player who will be willing to pay the price to improve.
“I think he’ll be a very solid piece in the NBA, for sure,” Brown said.
He envisions Risacher and guard Trae Young working well together given that Risacher doesn’t need to have the ball in his hands.
“If Trae Young’s on the court, Zacch will be cutting backdoor for a lob,” he said. “Trae Young can be penetrating and Zacch can be in a corner knocking down a 3. He can be very effective, for sure.”
Brown made an interesting choice when asked what NBA player Risacher reminded him of. He didn’t pick an All-Star, which gives you the idea that Risacher isn’t the standard superstar-in-waiting first overall pick. But the fact that Brown didn’t make such a lofty projection indicates he was not overhyping him, lending the comparison more validity.
Risacher, Brown said, is like a better version of Washington Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma, who is very good but probably not great. A seven-year NBA veteran who has yet to make an All-Star team, Kuzma was ranked the No. 86 in the league before last season by ESPN. This past season, he averaged 22.2 points, 6.6 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game while shooting 46.3% from the field. He can shoot the 3 and finishes well in transition.
Kuzma is agile, fast and can guard multiple positions. He and Risacher differ in that Kuzma plays power forward and Risacher is a wing player “but (they are) similar in how they move and how they run, how they guard and knock down shots,” Brown said.
A better Kyle Kuzma?
The Hawks would probably take that. Risacher might, too.
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