NBA DRAFT: French teens taken with top two picks

BROOKLYN — The Atlanta Hawks are looking for French teen Zaccharie Risacher to help revive the franchise after making the forward the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA draft Wednesday night. The 19-year-old Risacher (pronounced Ree-zah-shay) impressed the Hawks as a catch-and-shoot scorer with ideal size for a wing player. Risacher — at 6-foot 9 and 215 pounds — will be expected to join guards Trae Young and Dejounte Murray and forward Jalen Johnson as foundation players for a team which has not won a playoff series since advancing to the 2021 Eastern Conference finals. In a year there was no consensus choice as the top player in the draft, the Hawks could have traded down for more selections. The No. 1 pick was their only selection in the the draft. Instead, general manager Landry Fields didn't pass up the rare opportunity to take advantage of the top pick. The Hawks passed on another French star, 7-footer Alex Sarr, who had been projected by many to be the top selection, following France's Victor Wembanyama, who was last year's No. 1 pick by San Antonio. Among other options for Atlanta at No. 1 were UConn's Donovan Clingan, who could have been the team's center of the future, and Kentucky guard Reed Sheppard. The Washington Wizards drafted with the second pick in the Wednesday night, using their highest selection in 14 years to add some much-needed size to a team that won only 15 games last season. Sarr played last season for the Perth Wildcats in Australia. He also spent two years in the U.S. with Overtime Elite, a developmental league. The Wizards are a year removed from a front office overhaul and an offseason in which they traded Bradley Beal and Kristaps Porzingis. Their struggles last season — they set a franchise record for losses — were fairly predictable, and it's not clear how much anyone in this draft can accelerate their rebuild. Washington hasn't advanced past the second round of the playoffs since 1979, and this is only the third time since then the franchise has picked in the top two of the draft. The Wizards used an ill-fated No. 1 overall pick on Kwame Brown in 2001. In 2010, they used the top pick on John Wall, ushering in an era of mild success that eventually ran its course. The last time the team picked No. 2 it worked out beautifully — Wes Unseld, taken second in 1968, eventually led the organization to a championship. Twenty years to the day after Washington's NHL team drafted another Alex — Russian star Ovechkin — the Wizards can only hope Sarr will have a similar impact.