Mavericks Exercise Team Option On Zaccharie Risacher

The Mavericks have exercised their fourth-year rookie scale team option on 21-year-old forward Zaccharie Risacher, the team announced in a press release. The decision, which was due by November 2, guarantees Risacher’s $17.4MM salary for the 2027/28 season, ensuring that he’ll become extension-eligible next July. Dallas acquired the former No. 1 overall pick in July 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, and 6.0 rebounds in 30.0 minutes per game and has struggled with his efficiency, hitting just 30.8% of his shots from the floor and 17.6% of his three-pointers. However, Risacher has been extremely active defensively — as we noted earlier today, he entered the day tied for second in the NBA in “stocks” (steals and blocks) with 16 through four games. He set the franchise record for most steals in a debut, with five against the Rockets last Wednesday, the team noted in its announcement. 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 had been 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 believes 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. As our tracker shows, the Mavs also exercised Flagg’s $15.2MM option for 2027/28 earlier this month.