Following the demolishing of Duke in the Champions Classic, Kentucky Coach John Calipari was asked by a reporter if the pedestrian performance by Skal Labissiere was worrisome for Skal. The Port-au-Prince, Haiti native fouled out in just 13 minutes, and committed two turnovers.
On the plus side, he had seven points and four rebounds in that limited amount of action.
“He’s going to be fine,” said Calipari. “It’s all new to him.”
Despite not getting much from Skal Labissiere, Kentucky still dominated the defending champion Blue Devils, who also boast this season’s number one rated freshmen class.
Following a breakout 26-point performance in a 30-point victory over NJIT, Skal was named the Southeastern Conference’s Co-Freshman of the Week on Monday. LSU’s Antonio Blakeney shared the honors with Skal.
Against weaker pre-conference nobodies, Labissiere averaged team highs in points (17.5) and blocks (3.0) for the week. In the opener against Albany, he had nine points, five rebounds and a team-high four blocks. The four blocks in his season debut were the most since Anthony Davis had five against Marist in 2011. You know how and where he ended up though- very erratic. His NBA Draft projections mirror that extreme inconsistency and volatility.
Calipari was correct though in saying that Skal will be alright, if you define “alright” as a first round pick.
ESPN College Hoops and International Draft expert Fran Fraschilla discussed the 2016 NBA Draft on a media conference call, and here below are transcripts of some of the highlights of the Skal Labissiere discussion, via an ESPN release.
“As far as Skal, unfortunately Skal is the product of ridiculous expectations a year ago, because when you look at his body type, and I know Anthony Davis was the first pick in the draft. But Skal’s body type, along with his basketball experience, lent itself to this being a very trying first year for him.”
“What you like about Skal is his size and length and his ability to play away from the basket. Right now, he plays with no force around the rim. There’s no way he can guard an NBA 4-man for 5-man right now in the low post. And although he’s got a nice little touch around the basket, particularly with a jump-up over the left shoulder, his body type is such that he’s not getting into the low post anytime soon in the NBA game.”
“Someone is going to take him in the middle of the first round, and again, he’s what we call a projection pick. Where do you see him two, three, four years down the road, because that’s when he’s going to be able to make a mark on an NBA team, if then.”
“in a draft like, this once you get past the tenth, 11th, 12th pick, you’ll see a lot of teams trying to trade out of the pick and making phone calls, because unless they have a guy they absolutely love, it becomes a crapshoot. Skal is a crapshoot kind of player. You love the length and athleticism. You love the fact that he made like probably 45 percent of his mid-range jumpshots this year, a lot of pick-and-pop shots.”
“He didn’t really show the range that he has at the NBA three-point line and he doesn’t have the physical presence to really hold his ground in the low post.”
“So these are all major factors in an NBA game right now. To me, he’s hit and miss as much as anybody who is taken between 50 and 60 is hit and miss, and that seems to be the case every year. Guys that go after the elite guys go, he’s really in that range where from 15 on down to, let’s say, 30 is his real range, there’s a lot of things that need to be polished up and improved on, and a lot of it is just physical maturity and strength. And some skills, like passing and dribbling the ball, because in watching a lot of tape of him, most of his mid-range shots came wide-open, pick-and-pop off Ulis or Murray, pass, because those guys were so important to a defense guarding them that he was the beneficiary of wide-open shots.”
Here’s where we have him in our latest NBA mock draft and why:
11. Orlando-Skal Labissiere, C, Kentucky, 7-0, Fr.
The Magic could use a boost in talent inside next to Nikola Vucevic. Labissiere is still a developing big man who has the tools to be a major factor on both ends of the floor. He is a project and won’t be a major contributor right away but could pay huge dividends down the road. Go here for more on Skal Labissiere.
ESPN NBA Draftnik Chad Ford, who answered media questions during today’s NBA Draft media call. Here’s transcript of what he had to say regarding Skal Labissiere via ESPNmediazone.com
Ford: “Labissiere is a little bit harder. I put his range right now at about 7 to 13, so Denver at 7 being the high point, Phoenix at 13 being the low point. I think many of us have projected, and I think it’s very accurate, that the Orlando Magic at 11 look like the most likely spot for him to land. His ability to shoot the ball, to stretch the floor, to protect the rim are elite. The question is does he know how to play basketball? Does he have a feel for the game?”
“Does he have the toughness to play in the NBA? Those are all huge questions that when you get to that portion of the draft, I think because there aren’t a lot of players left that are sure things, that most of those players are just rotation players now, you start to look at Skal and say, look, if Skal hits, he could be Channing Frye, he might even be better than Channing Frye, and if that’s the case, he’s worth gambling, even if it ends up being that he can’t play and I think that’s why I think you’ll see Milwaukee at 10, Orlando at 11, Utah at 12 and Phoenix who now have a second first-round pick in the lottery, just go ahead and roll the dice and gamble.”
“I think he’s got a really safe range there. How he pans out as a player, man, that — I really think anybody that says they know is guessing. I think so much of it is going to have to be about his maturity and his mental development and whether that can click because the skills are there.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication.
He also consistently appears on numerous talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram