Hawks' Zaccharie Risacher joins Team T-Mac in the Castrol Rising Stars game, stepping in for an injured Ajay Mitchell
The NBA announced today that Atlanta Hawks' small forward, and former No.1 overall draft pick in the 2024 NBA draft, Zaccharie Risacher, will be participating in the 2026 Castrol Rising Stars game on February 13, at 9 p.m. EST on Team T-Mac.
He is replacing Oklahoma City Thunder guard Ajay Mitchell, who is dealing with an abdominal strain.
This is the second-straight Rising Stars game for Risacher, who participated as a rookie last season.
Risacher will join the likes of Kon Kneuppel, Kel'el Ware, Alex Sarr (drafted right behind Risacher), Tre Johnson, Jaylon Tyson, and Cam Spencer.
It's been an up-and-down season for Zaccharie Risacher in his second-NBA season. He was originally snubbed from this list, but had been dealing with a knee injury at the time of the original roster announcement. Risacher is averaging 10.7 points per game this season in 41 games, and is shooting 35% from three.
He will join Hawks' All-Star Jalen Johnson as the only two Atlanta players to represent the team at this weekend's All-Star festivities.
As a rookie, Risacher was slightly more efficient, scoring 12.6 points per game, coming in second in NBA Rookie of the Year voting, and being named to the All-Rookie team.
However, his sophomore season has come with a bit of growing pains, and less opportunies with Jalen Johnson, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and Onyeka Okongwu dominating shots attempted by the Hawks.
The Hawks have just one game remaining until the NBA All-Star break, but as the ninth seed in the Eastern Conference, Atlanta will need Zaccharie Risacher to be a productive player down the final stretch of the season.
The biggest problem with Risacher's game this season has been inconsistency, and the Hawks' last three games are very emblematic of that. A week ago against the Jazz, Risacher went 0-for-8 from the field en route to a goose egg scoring performance. He followed that up with an 18-point performance against the Hornets, but then Risacher had another clunker against the Timberwolves last night with just three points in 21 minutes.
Risacher has started all 41 games he's played in, and perhaps he'd be more successful at times coming off the bench.