What’s wrong with Kentucky’s Skal Labissiere?

Skal Labissiere has had an eventful path on the way to becoming a college freshman and NBA Draft prospect. A native of Haiti, Labissiere was a victim of the January 2010 earthquake that devastated the capital city of Port-au-Prince where a then 13-year-old Skal and his family resided. As Sports Illustrated’s Luke Winn explains, Labissiere was trapped under a fallen wall for hours before being dug out by his father.

By August of that year, he was in Memphis under the guardianship of the notorious Gerald Hamilton. Hamilton would later be the subject of much scrutiny after allegedly asking an AAU coach how to profit off of a basketball player. Those allegations would ultimately not prevent Labissiere from becoming eligible and entering the 2015-16 college basketball season as one of the country’s highest rated NBA prospects alongside LSU’s Ben Simmons.

While Simmons has flourished, Labissiere has floundered. There have been moments, brief glimpses of the potential that made him the top prospect in the country according to some recruiting services. Against UCLA, he showed off a nifty left-handed hook shot. Versus Alabama, he switched onto Retin Obasohan in the pick-and-roll and blocked the guard’s shot attempt at the rim. But if you watch Labissiere for long, you’re all too often left wondering, “what in the hell were people thinking?”

It’s a fair question at this point. Labissiere is a project and the skill set that made him a highly touted recruit has yet to translate at the collegiate level, especially against quality competition. Although the freshman has had impressive outings against the likes of NJIT and South Florida, he has struggled against teams ranked in the top 50 of KenPom, averaging just five points and three rebounds per contest while shooting 33 percent from the field through five games. In truth, Labissiere is not yet sufficiently developed, both physically and skill-wise, to have a substantial impact.

At 19-years-old, Labissiere has the frame fitting of an NBA big. He is already 7-0 tall. He has an average 7-2 wingspan, but he makes up for it with good agility and athleticism. The problem is that Labissiere has yet to fill out that frame. Kentucky lists him at 225 pounds, nine pounds heavier than he weighed at the 2015 Hoop Summit. His lanky frame combined with the fact that head coach John Calipari has asked him to play a role similar to the one Karl-Anthony Towns thrived in last season has made it difficult for Labissiere to succeed offensively, where he’s often unable to get post position against larger defenders.

His lack of strength also manifests itself on the boards, where Labissiere struggles to hold position against Kentucky’s opponents and is consistently unable to confidently grab rebounds. According to KenPom, Labissiere’s defensive rebounding rate is just 11.8 percent. For comparison, his 6-3 teammate Isaiah Briscoe grabs 15.4 precent of defensive rebounds when he’s on the floor.

Labissiere’s size is a problem that should become less of an issue as he matures and gains access to training staffs that can provide him adequate strength building routines and eating plans. He’s already added some size in Lexington, which is something that should continue throughout the season. The larger problem is that Labissiere still needs to learn how to play basketball at this level. This shouldn’t necessarily come as a surprise. A stress fracture in his back limited his playing time significantly during his junior year of high school and a ruling from the Tennessee School Sports Athletic Association kept him from playing much high-level basketball during his senior season.

The result is a 19-year-old that’s still learning the game. This fact is obvious watching Labissiere play defense, where he struggles with rotations and staying out of foul trouble. As a result of his agility and athleticism, Labissiere has proven to be a decent rim protector, blocking 8.2 percent of opponents’ field goal attempts, but that number would be much higher if he didn’t have a bad habit of following the ball and losing his initial assignment.

The poor rotations hurt in other ways as well. Against LSU, Labissiere simply followed the basketball while Aaron Epps found his way out to the 3-point line for a wide open look. They also make it more difficult for Skal to stay on the floor – he is committing 6.8 fouls per 40 minutes. Labissiere’s penchant for chasing blocks combined with late rotations mean that he’s regularly putting himself into bad positions.

This missing feel for the game is also present offensively. Labissiere doesn’t do a good job of finding his teammates (he’s assisted on a measly 3.3 percent of makes) and he is prone to turnovers, committing one on 17.6 percent of possessions. His slow reaction times are most noticeable when he’s put into a situation that requires a quick decision. For example, when Labissiere catches the ball in a spot where he should quickly put up a shot, he often stops to gather it and brings it below his waist. The results are rarely pretty.

At least one NBA scout suggested that Labissiere’s draft stock has cratered so far that he wouldn’t be selected with the 51st pick. That assumption is ridiculous, but there’s no doubt that Labissiere’s freshman season hasn’t helped his position in what is a relatively weak draft class. The thing that Labissiere needs more than anything is time — minutes against quality competition, hours in the weight room and weeks to build out the learned instincts that he missed out on for two years of high school. College may not be the place where Labissiere sees his greatest growth. Coaches and fan bases are impatient, they want wins now and, even more importantly, in March.

None of this means that it’s time to give up on Skal Labissiere. He’s an athletic, skilled big man who has shown the ability to play in pick-and-pop situations. Labissiere is a great option to play the stretch four in the NBA, he just needs to be given the time and situation that allow him to show it.