Hawks & Risacher: Draft Fallout & Rebuild? | NBA News

Saturday night, Zacharie Risacher was not much more useful to his team than an average spectator during the last quarter of the New York Knicks reception. However, neither physical problem nor need to rest was to be reported. Simply a habit adopted by Atlanta Hawks coach Quin Snyder: since the start of the season, the No. 1 in the draft does not play, or very little, at the end of matches. It has even become the symbol of a stagnant second campaign for the Frenchman, who could, according to rumors, be one of the victims of a major upheaval in the squad.

Marc Stein, renowned insider of the Great League, affirmed in his daily bulletin Sunday evening that Atlanta would be ready to part ways with Zaccharie Risacher. But the real bombshell was dropped this Monday by ESPNwho suggested that the Hawks could seek to trade Trae Young, the star of the franchise and central element of the leaders’ project for eight seasons now. It would seem that, faced with the prospect of a new average season looming, the Georgian Front Office has made the decision to act. Either bring in a new lieutenant for Young or just blow the whole thing up.

Because this Atlanta squad certainly needs movement. After a third of the season, the Hawks are 10th in the Eastern Conference with a negative record and the feeling of plateauing. However, everything seemed to be on track this summer. The arrivals of Kristaps Porzingis and Nickeil Alexander-Walker, combined with the good omens shown by Zaccharie Risacher at the end of the rookie season, suggested that this team was ready to take a step forward. Enough to secure a top 4 finish in the East, if everything goes correctly, and advance to at least one round in the play-offs.

In reality, the seeds of this team’s misfortune had already taken root. And this even before the start of the season. Precisely when the leaders of Atlanta surprised observers by waiting before extending the contract of… Trae Young. “They didn’t make a single attempt to get him to sign an extensionmentioned this Monday Tim McMahon ofESPN. When these kinds of things happen with the franchise’s face on, it’s a pretty clear message that the end is near.” With all the cards now in hand, this 2025-2026 exercise therefore looks like a last chance given by the leaders of the Hawks to their star. Leaders who know very well that the leader has an option that only he can activate in his contract for an additional year. And who would therefore like to warn.

With Flagg in Dallas?

Especially since Trae Young’s stats this season have not been this low since his rookie year, and his team’s defense collapses dramatically when he is on the floor. Alongside all of this, winger Jalen Johnson is exploding, knows how to defend, and led his team to a record of 13 wins for 9 losses in the absence of Young, who injured his knee at the end of October and was out for a month and a half. Just enough to make the leaders of Atlanta think that they no longer necessarily need the leader. Or another “forward” like, randomly, Zaccharie Risacher.

Because if the Frenchman has never shunned the success of a teammate whom he describes as a “super mec“, his explosion necessarily overshadows him. And this is how a franchise which looked like a good base on the day of its draft becomes the wrong place at the wrong time. A context which stagnates, a coach who does not trust him in the moments that count and limits his playing time, and another player who becomes a star in the same position: there is now everything in sight for the No.1 of the 2024 draft. Especially since, to top it all off, his progression and his adaptation to the NBA are judged not as fast as expected.

A trade could therefore be a good solution for him, who seems barred by the stubbornness of Quin Snyder in Atlanta. The Dallas Mavericks are the most often mentioned potential destination for him, in a trade involving All-Star interior Anthony Davis among others. He could land on his feet in the hard core of young players of the Texan franchise, however led by the very talented Cooper Flagg, number 1 of the last Draft and… also a winger.