When we last checked in on the leadup to this year’s FIBA European Basketball Championship, or EuroBasket 2025, four Hawks looked slated to feature for their respective national teams.
Now, the list is down to three on the eve of the competition proper. Let’s go through them with updates from friendly games:
Zaccharie Risacher just played his final exhibition on Sunday against Greece in A 92-77 victory. The French national team won all five friendly games heading into the tournament, but Risacher’s
impact in all the games has been mixed. His best performance came in a 74-67 win over Great Britain where he logged 12 points on 5-for-9 (56%) shooting and grabbed six rebounds.
France is light on guard play to be able to get ‘Zacch’ the ball for scoring chances — and the friendlies are intended to spread minutes around to everyone who is available — so we’ll continue to monitor to see how involved Risacher is for the meaningful games. Even without the likes of Victor Wembanyama and Rudy Gobert, France is still among the favorites to win this competition, so this will be a good showcase for Risacher in a high leverage situation regardless.
This is an important tournament for Kristaps Porzingis to demonstrate he’s past his post-viral syndrome as he heads into his first season with the Hawks. The Latvian national team will focus their team around the 7-foot-2 unicorn as much as can be expected, and so far, Porzingis has shown some real flashes of the KP of old.
In four warmup games against Italy, Greece, Slovenia, and Lithuania, Porzingis has averaged 15 points, five rebounds and four assists on around 23 minutes per game. He’s shooting from deep well and moving around much better than we say in the playoffs for the Celtics, so there are many reasons for optimism so far.
The Czechia national team will likely feature Vit Krejci, its lone NBA player on the roster. In an exhibition game against Greece, he exploded for 18 points on just nine shots plus five assists. In his other friendly, Krejci was held to just five points as Czechia were battered by favorites Serbia. Krejci figures to be pushed to the fringe of the rotation for the Hawks with them loading up this offseason, so this will be an opportunity to prove he’s taken strides in his game ahead of a 2025-26 season when his contract is only partially guaranteed.
Eli John N’Diaye sadly was decided to step away from the Spanish national team due to discomfort in his right shoulder. This is a precautionary move, and there has been no indication that it will affect his readiness for training camp this fall with the Hawks.
The 20-year-old forward signed a two-way contract with the Hawks this summer after progressing through the Real Madrid academy into the senior basketball team. He only appeared in 0ne summer league contest during which he suffered fall that injured his right wrist, but he came back from that to train with the Spanish national team before this unrelated shoulder issue.
