Atlanta Hawks head coach Quin Snyder has had the chance to coach some amazing international players throughout his career, but more specifically, those from France. This year, he’s been given the opportunity to coach the No. 1 overall pick, Zaccaharie Risacher, and throughout the season, he’s shown him nothing but love when talking about his growth.
For Snyder, he thinks that all of the French players in the league are special, and he spoke about it before their game against the Indiana Pacers.
“There’s a number of French players in the NBA right now – younger players – that are very talented and competitive, and you can see their progression and see how their career is going to have that arc,” Snyder said. “We have one of them on our team in Zacch. Like I’ve said before, his competitiveness is unique, especially for his age. Rudy [Gobert] had that level of fight in him. Rudy was incredibly competitive. anybody that watches Rudy and Zacch play, they’re different players, but they’re very unique.”
Snyder coached Gobert when he was on the Utah Jazz, and he watched him turn into a Defensive Player of the Year. He also was able to coach Boris Diaw, who was known as a “do it all” type of player when he was in the league.
“I don’t think I coached a player that passed the ball better than Boris Diaw. Just his feel for the game,” Snyder said.
Snyder has echoed the same sentiments about Risacher’s growth through the season, and it looks like he’s starting to figure things out more and more as the year winds down.
“I think with Zacch we’ve seen not just flashes, but periods of time where [he’s growing]. I’ve mentioned this about his success not being linear where he has opportunities in games where he does something, and you’re like, ‘Okay.’ For me, things I’ve seen him working on, sometimes for people who are just watching, that’s a flash that they haven’t seen the work that’s been put in,” Snyder said.
Zaccharie Risacher continues to learn during rookie season with Hawks
Zaccharie Risacher is getting better as the season progresses, and his hard work is paying off. He recently was named Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month of February, and since the end of November, he’s shooting 40% from three. Though he’s seeing progress, there are still some things that he’s getting used to, like not getting foul calls.
I’ve always bought into Zaccherie Risacher’s shooting upside
It’s what made him a valuable prospect being such a good shooter at his size
So seeing him hit 42% of his 4.2 3PA/g since January 1st is very validating after he started out slow from 3 pic.twitter.com/mqxOtxw6fd
— Point Made Basketball (@pointmadebball) March 7, 2025
“I’m in a great environment with a lot of great coaches, and we’ve been working on a lot of stuff since the beginning,” Risacher said via Lauren Williams of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “So, it’s nice to see that the all the work pays off in games. But yeah, I gotta be physical. I gotta be prepared to deal with contact. And yeah, when I drive.”
It’s obvious that Risacher is still getting the rookie whistle – which is basically no whistle at times – but that hasn’t stopped him from continuing to be aggressive when he’s on the floor.
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