I’m struggling to see what y’all are seeing in Risacher. I see a guy who runs to the corner to catch and shoot. I don’t see a guy creating his own shot or plays for others. I’m not using a 3 pick on a catch and shoot guy.
I feel like Risacher plays like Jalen does. Takes the same stupid shots with the same stupid footwork. Has more shitty games than good ones but his good ones come in spurts so you think he's turned it around and then he just reverts back. I wouldn't touch Risacher in the Top 5 this draft. Bad fundamentals, streaky shooter, can't create separation, middling athlete. He's nothing close to Brandon Miller was last year or Jabari the year before. If anything Jabari's issues with dribbling at this level are a much better indicator of what to expect from Risacher and he doesn't have anything close to what Jabari's jumper looked like coming out of Auburn.
Aside from the obvious (size, position, athleticism), the big difference is that Risacher should actually provide some value on defense. Not sure if he'll actually be a major plus on that end, but I don't see much risk of him being below average. I also do think his shot is better than Jalen's, though I agree it's not at Miller's or Jabari's level at this point. I just see the floor/ceiling equation as very different. I think Risacher is very likely to be an NBA rotation player, and has almost no chance of becoming a #1 option, superstar type of player. With Jalen, when you think back to him as a prospect, I think you had to worry about his downside of just straight-up being out of the NBA in short order (fortunately that doesn't seem to be the case) but his ceiling was sky-high (he isn't there yet, if he'll ever be, we'll see).
I think the play you see is much more a function of what he's being asked to do in Euroleague play. When you see him on the break, there's a guy that is very comfortable with the ball in his hands. He might not be a #1 option, but I think he gives you more than Kyle Anderson with a touch more shooting, size, and maybe athleticism.
I dont disagree that Risacher can project to be like...maybe a Mikal Bridges if he works hard and spends a few seasons correcting the many bad habits he appears to have. Didn't even talk about his nonexistent playmaking. But if we are going for a role player, I'm going to take a role player that at least plugs a hole we have instead of another wing project. And if we are doing a wing project I think I'd rather Cody Williams or Buzelis who appear to have solid fundamentals. Risacher just looks so damn rough to me in that he's so far along in the wrong direction. Been through that 3 years with Jalen so that's where the aversion comes from and he hasn't improved almost at all when it comes to that.
I dont know much about the foreigners. Clingan was the best player I saw in my limited watching of college basketball.
Just say no to Matas. He cannot shoot, he cannot dribble, and isn’t particularly great at anything. He’s just tall and athletic, which is not enough. I don’t know much about Sarr, but he can protect the rim and seems to be consensus top 2. Risacher can shoot, defend and he’s tall, so sounds like someone we could use. if Sarr and Risacher are off the board I hope we draft Sheppard or Salaun. Topic and Castle look like good prospects to me but loading up on more non-shooters is a concern. One of these guys is going to be enticing enough for some team to move up.
I think Clingan's probably the safest pick ...high floor. I'm assuming #3 provides us a lot of value from someone moving up for him.
