Zaccharie Risacher has lost the belief of Hawks fans. That's never what you want from a premier draft pick, of course, but fans are volatile. They can be won back. Worse for Risacher, though, is that he appears to have lost the belief of the Hawks organization, too. That's a much tougher thing to reacquire once its gone.
In February, Risacher shot 34.1 percent from the field, averaging 7.1 points per game while shooting 8.2 shots. That's startlingly poor efficiency, and the eye test isn't doing him any favors, either. He also played just 23 minutes per game, and feels less important to the Hawks' equation than ever before. He's not trusted with the ball in his hands, and is struggling mightily to stand out as anything more than an average bench player.
Plus, with Jonathan Kuminga entering the picture and basically playing the Risacher role of wing scorer and stopper better than Risacher himself, it now feels like Risacher reclaiming his spot as a cornerstone of this team's future will be an uphill climb.
Zaccharie Risacher is trending in the wrong direction in year two
You will not catch me calling Zaccharie Risacher a bust after 123 career games. In fact, you'll probably never catch me calling Risacher a "bust," because I think giving players that label often absolves the team that drafted them of all responsibility — when in reality, the team deserves the brunt of the blame. It's not the players fault they were drafted too high!
With that being said, when a franchise sours on a once-promising player, there aren't many examples of them fighting their way back into favor. In fact, Jonathan Kuminga is a perfect example of that relationship not being repaired. In Golden State, Kuminga fell out of favor (for reasons that still don't make a ton of sense to me), and was shipped off to Atlanta, where he's showing why he was thought of so highly in the first place.
I'm not saying that Risacher will need a fresh start in a different city to find his game again. But if history tells us anything, the trend of Risacher's role shrinking probably won't reverse anytime soon. At this point, he's strictly a backup wing who may come in and provide some solid defensive play and hit the occasional 3-pointer. That's a fine player to be, but it seems like that's the player the Hawks believe Risacher to be going forward — overall, that's a disappointment.