The Atlanta Hawks tested their lock on lottery night and despite having just a 3% chance of winning the lottery, they ended up with the number one overall pick. This was the first time in franchise history the Hawks landed the number one pick and they clearly took it seriously as they were exploring all their options with the pick.
Let’s dive into each selection they made and the summary of their draft.
The top pick in this year’s draft was Zaccharie Risacher out of France. Assuming the Hawks team is still trying to contend while Trae Young is still on this roster then there’s some solid logic behind this pick. Risacher is regarded as one of the safest picks in this year’s draft. At 6-foot-10 the fluid wing is a very good 3-point shooter.
He has the ability to make shots off the catch and is capable of running off screens and knocking down movement jumpers. He isn't quite an elite shooter, but he’s certainly a very good one. On the defensive side of things, he did a great job at the point of attack as he has the lateral quickness, size and length to disrupt the primary ball-handler’s flow. Assuming the Hawks keep the rest of their core together, it looks like Risacher will be the starting small forward next season for the squad.
He projects to be a 3-and-D wing right away which should be an ideal fit next to Young. The big concern with this pick is that if the Hawks elect to go into rebuild mode and move on from Young then they will have to rely on Risacher to take on more on-ball responsibilities but he hasn’t shown any real potential or signs of being a primary or secondary on-ball creator for a team.
No. 43: Nikola Djurisic
The Hawks in the second round elected to go with another wing international prospect in Nikola Djurisic out of Serbia. This is a solid selection out of the Hawks for where they selected him. The 6-foot-8 wing ended the season on an amazing note for KK Mega Basket as in the final nine games of the season he averaged 19.6 points and 3.7 assists per game.
What Djurisic does best is score it as he’s a tough shot-maker who has a smooth pull-up jumper. He’s most comfortable scoring it from the mid-range area but he can also finish at the rim and is a capable 3-point shooter. The Serbian wing showed good passing vision and has the ability to be a secondary or tertiary playmaker in the NBA.
The two biggest question marks for Djurisic is if he’s going to be a consistent enough shooter off the catch to be considered a legit threat from behind the arc and is he going to hold his own defensively? I wouldn’t expect a ton of valuable minutes out of him right away, but a couple years down the line Djurisic could find himself in a Bogdan Bogdanovic type of role.
In the grand scheme of things, the Hawks improved their wing depth after losing two wings by trading away second-year player AJ Griffin and allowing Saddiq Bey to walk in free agency. Risacher might not be the most polarizing or elite prospect but he does bring shooting and defense which was missing a bit on this Hawks squad a season ago. The main issue with their top selection is that he doesn’t have the same ceiling that a guy like Alex Sarr has.
Now with that being said Sarr didn’t want to work out with the Hawks and all signs indicated to him not wanting to play in Atlanta so that certainly could play a role in the Hawks going with Risacher. The 6-foot-10 wing could end up having a Michael Porter Jr type of role for the Hawks which is certainly very valuable as Porter was huge in the Denver Nuggets winning their first NBA championship back in 2023. This was just an okay draft out of the Hawks. They didn’t really get a “steal” with either of their picks and looked to be focused more so on fit rather than best player available.
Want to join the discussion? Like Draft Digest on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to stay up to date on all the latest NBA Draft news. You can also meet the team behind the coverage.
