Mavericks Exercise Team Option On Zaccharie Risacher

The Mavericks have exercised their $17.4MM, fourth-year team option on 21-year-old forward Zaccharie Risacher, the team announced in a press release.

Dallas acquired the former number one overall pick as part of the three-team trade that sent Luguentz Dort to the Hawks. In his four games this season with the Mavs, the 6’8″ forward has averaged 8.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 2.0 steals in 30.0 minutes per game, though he has struggled to find shooting consistency, hitting just 17.6% of his threes and 30.8% of his shots from the floor.

He set the franchise record for most steals in a team debut, with five against the Rockets, the team noted.

Both team president Masai Ujiri and general manager Mike Schmitz are high on Risacher, adds Marc Stein of The Stein Line (via Twitter), who says that this decision was what was widely expected.

Head coach Dusty May also recently spoke highly of Risacher, despite his struggles, Grant Afseth writes for Dallas Sports Journal.

“Zacch is finding himself now, he’s still so young. We really, really value and appreciate those plays,” May said. “However many missed shots he had, he had twice as many loose balls and blocks and steals and rebounds and the ones that don’t show up where he just gets a hand on it, where it’s maybe coming to Bam or Giannis, and he just gets a fingertip and then our guards dig it out. There’s no stat for that, but those are valued in our program and within our team.”

Risacher knows that the shot will come around, but he also knows that with offensive stars like Cooper Flagg and Kyrie Irving on the roster, his role will be to play defense, do the dirty work, and capitalize on the opportunities given to him by the team cornerstones.