Hawks climb to .500 as wins mount, yet former top pick Zaccharie Risacher's scoring slump deepens, casting a shadow over their success.
The Atlanta Hawks are on a four-game winning streak to finally reach the .500 plateau once again (31-31).
Although against some weaker opponents, Atlanta seems to be finding its scoring identity. All four wins have come at State Farm Arena, which is a welcome sign, and the Hawks continue to try to push towards the top of the NBA play-in standings.
However, Zaccharie Risacher continues to struggle mightily scoring the basketball. His role has been reduced to a bench contributor, which has limited the amount of shots he's been taking, but still, it's been eight games since he's posted a scoring output of more than 10 points (he scored exactly 10 on Feb. 19).
A lot of Risacher's struggles have come via the 3-pointer.
Ever since making four 3-pointers against the Hornets in early February, over Risacher's last 8 contests, he's made just seven 3-pointers in 30 attempts (23%).
A couple of really poor outings have skewed that number a little bit, but the fact now is that Zaccharie Risacher isn't a top-scoring option for this Hawks team. There are at least five other players (Jalen Johnson, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, CJ McCollum, Jonathan Kuminga, and Onyeka Okongwu) that the Hawks and Quin Snyder likely trust more with the ball in their hands than Risacher.
That's extremely rare for a former No.1 overall draft pick, and a story that HawksRoundtable published last week indicated the brutal company Risacher would be in if he doesn't reach the 750-point mark for the season, which looks increasingly more unlikely at this juncture.
Risacher is averaging 10.1 points this season, but that number continues to shrink with each game Zaccharie has played. Overall, he's shooting 44% from the field, 34% from three, and just 58.5% from the free throw line.
So, as the Atlanta Hawks keep winning, it will be interesting to see the strategy they deploy around Zaccharie Risacher, because it's important to keep his confidence level high, but at the same time, if the shooting struggles persist (which they have), the Hawks are not in a position to be throwing away possessions in any game.
It would be different if this Hawks team were a tanking team, or way out of the play-in tournament, but with real games at stake, there will be no real room for Risacher to develop in Atlanta, or at least for the remainder of this season, there won't be.