Sources: Dallas Mavericks Trade For Zaccharie Risacher In Three-Team Trade Sending Luguentz Dort To Atlanta Hawks

DALLAS — The Dallas Mavericks are trading for former No. 1 pick Zaccharie Risacher in a three-team trade Sunday that sends Luguentz Dort from the Oklahoma City Thunder to the Atlanta Hawks, Dallas Hoops Journal has learned.

Dallas is sending Ryan Nembhard and a 2027 second-round pick to Atlanta to land Risacher. Oklahoma City will receive three second-round picks total for parting with Dort, its longest-tenured player and a starter on the franchise’s 2025 championship team.

Dallas Mavericks Land Zaccharie Risacher to Pair With Cooper Flagg

Risacher, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, joins a Dallas roster being retooled around reigning Rookie of the Year Cooper Flagg. President Masai Ujiri and general manager Mike Schmitz targeted the 21-year-old forward this summer as the franchise builds its young core under Mavericks coach Dusty May.

Risacher earned NBA All-Rookie First Team honors as a rookie and finished as runner-up to Stephon Castle in Rookie of the Year voting after averaging 12.6 points and 3.6 rebounds. His production dipped in his sophomore season, when he averaged 9.6 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 22.4 minutes across 67 games, and his role shrank enough that he played just 7.7 minutes per game across three appearances in the 2026 playoffs.

Over two seasons, Risacher has averaged 11.1 points and 3.7 rebounds on 45.7% shooting from the field, 36.0% from 3-point range and 68.6% from the free-throw line in 142 games.

Risacher carries a $13.8M cap hit for next season, with a $17.4M club option for 2027-28 that Dallas must decide on by Oct. 31. The Mavericks used their $20.8M traded player exception generated from this offseason’s Anthony Davis trade with the Washington Wizards to absorb Risacher’s salary, eliminating the need to send matching money back to Atlanta.

Dallas is projected to land roughly $2.3M under the luxury tax line once the trade is finalized and will carry 16 players on standard contracts.

Dallas Mavericks Have Long Held Interest in Zaccharie Risacher

Dallas’s pursuit of Risacher did not start with Ujiri and Schmitz. Sources told Dallas Hoops Journal the Mavericks maintained interest in the French forward across the franchise’s front office transition, dating back to the previous regime.

The Brooklyn Nets were another team that held interest in the Risacher market earlier in the offseason, sources said, before the deal came together with Dallas.

Ryan Nembhard Heads to Atlanta Hawks

Nembhard went undrafted in the 2025 NBA Draft but earned a standard contract from Dallas after a strong two-way stint. He averaged 6.6 points, 2.2 rebounds and 5.3 assists in 19.5 minutes across 60 games, making 27 starts, and posted a 37.2% assist rate as a rookie.

He joins an Atlanta backcourt that already includes Dyson Daniels, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and CJ McCollum.

Oklahoma City Thunder Continue Shedding Salary

Oklahoma City exercised Dort’s $17.7M team option last month before flipping him to Atlanta, adding three second-round picks and a $17.7M trade exception to the return.

The Thunder have now shed $224M in payroll and tax obligations by trading Dort, Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins this offseason, dropping the team below the second tax apron and setting up projected luxury tax savings of more than $82M from the Dort trade alone.

Dort, 27, made the NBA’s All-Defensive First Team in 2025 and started for Oklahoma City’s 2025 title team after joining the franchise as an undrafted free agent in 2019. He averaged 8.3 points and 3.6 rebounds last season and posted career averages of 11.6 points and 3.8 rebounds across seven seasons with the Thunder.

He’ll pair with Daniels and Alexander-Walker on the wing in Atlanta, which is projected to carry more than $40M in cap space next summer.