With the completion of the Atlanta Hawks shipping their 2024 number one overall NBA Draft selection, forward Zaccharie Risacher, to the Dallas Mavericks, Risacher joined a small, peculiar club of NBA players who were selected at the top of their draft and yet did not make it to the third year of their NBA career with the team that drafted them.
BREAKING: The Oklahoma City Thunder trading All-Defensive wing Lu Dort to the Atlanta Hawks in a three-team deal that sends three second-round picks to OKC, former No. 1 pick Zaccharie Risacher to the Dallas Mavericks and Ryan Nembhard to Atlanta, sources tell ESPN. pic.twitter.com/4ewUxhRQA5
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 19, 2026
Christian Clark, Jason Jones, and Law Murray, all of The Athletic, collaborated on a story (subscription required) that explored what Risacher needs to do to turn around his NBA career, in addition to deconstructing the concept of “bust” as it relates to top NBA Draft picks.
🆕 @TheAthletic with @christianpclark @mr_jasonjones
— Law Murray ♣️ (@LawMurrayTheNU) July 22, 2026
Zaccharie Risacher is the rare top overall pick who was traded while on a rookie contract
So takes must be administeredhttps://t.co/GLPdDfARMq
Within The Athletic’s writer trio story, an odd piece of Chicago Bulls history was invoked when the Bulls decided to trade 1999-00 NBA Rookie of the Year forward Elton Brand to the Los Angeles Clippers in June 2001 for rookie center Tyson Chandler and forward Brian Skinner.
Brand at that time had finished his second season with the Bulls, and in addition to his Rookie of the Year recognition, the Duke Blue Devils phenom instantly displayed ready-made NBA production in his first two NBA seasons, averaging 20.1 points per game, 10.0 rebounds per game, and 1.6 blocks per game over his entire Bulls tenure.
Other names mentioned by Clark, Jones, and Murray that are in the dubious 'number-one draft pick traded early' club include guard Markelle Fultz, drafted number one by the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2017 NBA Draft, and forward Anthony Bennett, drafted number one overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2013 NBA Draft.
Fultz would go on to be traded by the 76ers midway through his second NBA season to the Orlando Magic, while Bennett was abruptly traded after his rookie season by the Cleveland Cavaliers during a 2014 NBA offseason that saw the franchise rapidly remake their roster via the free agency return of forward LeBron James and principally returning forward Kevin Love in their trade of Bennett to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Lessons past and present for the Bulls
The Bulls' Elton Brand trade will always be a franchise what-if. Certainly, the Bulls' front office general manager at the time, Jerry Krause, understandably was hunting for high upside when he acquired Chandler in 2001, but he paid a steep trade price by not getting any future draft capital for a Rookie of the Year player averaging 20 and 10.
So, with an eye toward the abstract future, if the Bulls must trade one of their own productive top draft picks again, they must sell high.
At the same time, the more relevant lesson for the Bulls is knowing when to move on from a top draft pick when it’s clear that the player isn’t on track to meet expectations.
The Bulls failed to do this with Patrick Williams, and although Noa Essengue is a mid-lottery pick, it may be time to cut bait and let him explore free agency soon.
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