UK signee Skal Labissiere impresses analysts, NBA scouts at Nike Hoop Summit practices

A mass exodus of players to the NBA will leave some mighty big shoes to fill for next season's University of Kentucky basketball team.

Luckily for the Wildcats, they just might have the best freshman in the country.

UK signee Skal Labissiere has been turning heads in Portland, Ore., this week while he prepares with the World Select team for Saturday's nationally televised Nike Hoop Summit, which will include most of the top prospects in the class of 2015.

On Monday, Labissiere measured 7 feet tall and 216 pounds.

On Tuesday, he performed so well that DraftExpress.com analyst Jonathan Givony moved him to the No. 1 spot on the website's 2016 NBA mock draft.

On Wednesday, the future Wildcat delivered more of the same for a crowd that included dozens of NBA personnel and at least 10 general managers from around the league.

"He's just so talented," Givony told the Herald-Leader after Wednesday's late practice session. "When you've been doing it for as long as I have, you kind of know when to make the move.

"Seven feet tall and he's so frickin' skilled. It's hard to find guys like that."

Givony said he surveyed a few of the NBA scouts in attendance and mentioned Labissiere's name along with fellow high school seniors Jaylen Brown and Ben Simmons — two other players commonly mentioned as possible No. 1 picks in 2016.

The response from the pros: Labissiere is the guy right now, and it's really not even that close.

Offensively, he has the tools to be a phenomenal player.

Fans in Western Kentucky got a glimpse of that potential in December, when Labissiere's overmatched Reach Your Dream Prep squad played against No. 1 Oak Hill Academy at the Marshall County Hoop Fest.

In that game, Labissiere was constantly double-teamed by high-level opponents, yet he managed to go 13 for 20 from the field, score 33 points and even knock down three three-pointers in the process. Remember, he's 7 feet tall.

"He doesn't shoot it like a lot of big guys — like flat-footed and slow," Givony said. "He can really rise up, almost like a guard. He has a very high release point. He has a very high arch on his shot. And he has really soft touch, too, so it makes it really hard to block.

"And he does funny things that raw players like him are just not supposed to do."

In just two days of practice time, Givony said he has seen Labissiere pull out a "one-legged shot" in the style of Dirk Nowitzki, a "swooping hook" like the ones UK fans saw from Karl-Anthony Towns, and a turnaround jumper "straight out of LaMarcus Aldridge's book."

That's two perennial NBA All-Stars and the possible No. 1 pick in this year's draft that Labissiere just got compared to.

"It's little things like that, and you're like, 'Wow. This guy,'" Givony said. "When he really gets it, it's going to be scary."

He has plenty of room to grow, too.

Labissiere survived the devastating earthquake in his home country of Haiti in 2010, and he was severely undersized when he came to the United States later that year. His previous high school coach, Evangelical Christian's Terry Tippett, didn't know what to think of Labissiere before he saw him pick up a basketball. "He was a string bean," Tippett told the Herald-Leader a couple of years ago. "I thought he was so thin and so weak."

He gradually put on some weight, but a back injury last season forced him to miss almost all of his junior year on the court, and it stalled his physical growth.

Labissiere was still skinny during last summer's AAU and camp circuit. He looked a little bigger earlier this high school season, and he showed up to this week's Hoop Summit in even better shape.

Givony expects that progress to continue this summer.

"The weight room at Kentucky is going to help him a lot, I think," he said. "He has a phenomenal frame, but he only weighs 216 pounds. But it's distributed really, really well. He's going to add 15 pounds easily this summer. And that's going to really take his game to a whole other level."

Labissiere also will play in next weekend's Jordan Brand Classic, but he didn't get a chance to participate in last week's McDonald's All-American Game after being ruled ineligible to play for his new high school over a transfer flap.

Instead, he played for Reach Your Dream Prep, a club founded by his guardian, Gerald Hamilton, who has attracted criticism for his handling of Labissiere's high school career. Hamilton told the Herald-Leader in December that the NCAA is looking into Labissiere's case, but he said neither he nor UK is concerned about eligibility issues.

Labissiere told DraftExpress.com in an interview this week that playing for Reach Your Dream helped his game by allowing him to compete against high-level programs including Oak Hill Academy and Prime Prep.

Despite the unorthodox path, the player has turned out fine.

Givony said Labissiere has been the "most vocal guy" in every defensive drill so far this week, calling out plays and helping his teammates. He always sounds like the consummate teammate himself.

Labissiere told DraftExpress that he's best at the 'four' position, but he doesn't know how John Calipari will use him at Kentucky. Doesn't much matter.

"Whatever Coach Cal has for me," Labissiere said. "I'm just going to go with it."

Scout.com recruiting director Evan Daniels is in Portland for this week's Hoop Summit workouts. Daniels was at the game when Labissiere took on Oak Hill in December and said then that he would contend for the No. 1 ranking in the class of 2015.

Four months later, he's making a pretty strong case.

"He was the best player I saw on Tuesday and it wasn't close," Daniels told the Herald-Leader. "His size, length, mobility and skill set really showed. He shot the ball particularly well from mid-range and also impacted the game with his shot-blocking.

"Skal is the full package when it comes to high school post prospects."

This story was originally published April 9, 2015 at 7:40 AM with the headline "UK signee Skal Labissiere impresses analysts, NBA scouts at Nike Hoop Summit practices."