NEW YORK — Yves Missi is a gigantic, super-athletic heart who covers an absurd quantity of floor on protection. The day earlier than the NBA Draft, Missi described himself as “somebody with excessive motor and excessive power who is ready to block photographs, play protection [and] end by contact.” He usually threw down thunderous dunks throughout his single season in faculty, and, though he is extensively seen as a uncooked prospect, he believes he can contribute to an NBA crew instantly as a lob menace and rim protector.Â
Remind you of anyone?
“I believe y’all noticed what Dereck Vigorous was doing within the playoffs,” fellow Baylor draftee Ja’Kobe Walter mentioned. “I believe Yves may try this, particularly coming in his first rookie yr.”
Missi himself has likened his recreation to Dereck Vigorous II’s in interviews with groups. On condition that Vigorous was taken twelfth final yr and outperformed his draft place by changing into an important a part of an NBA Finals crew, this isn’t shocking. Missi mentioned that, like Vigorous, he thinks he might help his crew by bringing power. He additionally famous that Vigorous improved over course of his first season. He thinks he can develop equally.
“What he did in faculty positively translated to the NBA,” Missi mentioned. “And I really feel like I did among the issues he was doing final yr fairly properly, and I hope that subsequent I will have the ability to do the identical stuff on the courtroom within the NBA.”
Likelihood is, Missi’s rookie yr will not be something like Vigorous’s, and he should not be held to that customary. The Dallas Mavericks heart proved to be way more superior than marketed as a defender and a decision-maker, and his manufacturing was one thing of a historic aberration: He was the primary rookie since Magic Johnson to document 150-plus rebounds within the playoffs or to have consecutive double-doubles within the Finals. That could not have occurred if he did not land in a super spot; Vigorous because the man screening for Luka Doncic is on par with any of The Bear‘s casting choices.
When it comes to instruments, although, Missi is on Vigorous’s stage. He is 6-foot-11 with out sneakers on, he is a unprecedented leaper and, for a 229-pound large man, he is exceptionally gentle on his ft. His 7-foot-2 wingspan is not as imposing as that of fellow draftees Alex Sarr (7-foot-4), Donovan Clingan (7-foot-6) and Zach Edey (7-foot-10!), however he makes up for it by exploding off the bottom the best way they’ll solely dream of. Ask him if he thinks he’ll drop or change extra typically on the subsequent stage, and he’ll say he is equally snug with each.
“I really feel prefer it simply will depend on how the crew needs to defend the pick-and-roll,” he mentioned.Â
The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie described Missi as “one of many safer picks within the draft” due to his excellent athleticism, and draft analyst Ben Pfeifer referred to as him a “defensive star hiding in plain sight.” Based mostly on his time at Baylor, he is not getting into the league with the flexibility to make the type of passing reads that Vigorous did within the quick roll. However Vigorous does not assault the basket off the dribble like Missi does.
The extra about Missi, the extra ridiculous his upside appears. The 20-year-old is “very new to the basketball world,” he mentioned, “and that is why I believe I’ve quite a lot of room to develop.” On Wednesday, he was chosen twenty first total by the New Orleans Pelicans. This time three years in the past, he had nearly no expertise enjoying organized basketball.Â
Missi grew up in Yaoundé, Cameroon, the place, in 2019, agent Bouna Ndiaye and coach Tim Martin, who depend Victor Wembanyama amongst their many consumers, ran the “Why Not Me” basketball camp. Missi had no thought who Ndiaye or Martin had been. Whereas each of his mother and father had performed for the Cameroonian nationwide crew and his (a lot) older brother, Steve Moundou-Missi, had hooped for Harvard, he was extra into soccer. When a coach instructed he attend the camp, although, Missi took him up on it.
“I used to be the very best younger prospect,” Missi mentioned. “I imply, I used to be the youngest man, there wasn’t quite a lot of us, so I used to be the very best younger prospect. And from there, I began actually liking basketball.”
4 months later, a 15-year-old Missi went to Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri’s Giants of Africa camp. Missi remembers the shock visitor who confirmed up: Pascal Siakam, with the Larry O’Brien trophy in hand. Siakam might have been an NBA champion and the league’s reigning Most Improved Participant, however, earlier than all that, a basketball camp had modified his life, too.
It’s arduous to overstate how little formal basketball coaching Missi had earlier than he got here to america. He mentioned there have been “few basketball courts which have two hoops of the identical peak” for him to play on. He would “mess around” with associates, however, when he arrived at West Nottingham Academy in Colora, Maryland, at 16 years outdated, fundamental terminology was new to him.
“It was extra like OK, now I be taught the pick-and-roll, the pick-and-pop, the expressions and all this,” Missi mentioned.
Missi confirmed up in the course of the 2020-21 educational yr, on account of visa points. He flew by himself, and, due to the pandemic, there have been “few individuals within the aircraft,” he mentioned. “Only a bizarre, bizarre time to journey.” In his first season, in case you can name it that, the crew solely performed one recreation.Â
Practices had been frequent, although, and it was clear instantly that his studying curve could be steep, particularly due to the language barrier. Missi couldn’t but converse English, which had made for a memorable expertise at customs and complex issues on the courtroom. “My first observe, they had been asking me about ‘rebounding,'” he mentioned, however he did not know what the phrase meant. His one French-speaking teammate assumed the function of interpreter.
“The transition was arduous,” Missi mentioned. “Simply coming from a special continent, totally different tradition and totally different background.”
At West Nottingham, which claims to be the oldest boarding faculty in America, Missi lived on campus. When he transferred to Prolific Prep in Napa, California, for the 2022-23 season, he moved in with a bunch household. “They had been tremendous, cool, tremendous good,” he mentioned. “They got here to our video games, they interacted with the crew, got here to observe generally.”Â
Over time, Missi turned accustomed to being away from household, obtained snug speaking in English and developed right into a extremely sought-after prospect. On the power of his play in highschool and AAU — he performed on the EYBL circuit with the PSA Cardinals — Missi earned a number of high-major affords, reclassified to the 2023 highschool class and, in January 2023, earlier than he’d even accomplished two full seasons of organized basketball, dedicated to Baylor.
Missi is aware of that, in comparison with his friends in New York, he had a particularly late begin. Wherever he is been, although, his perspective has been the identical. “Each time I’ve an expertise to only have a basketball in my palms, I am studying,” he mentioned. Due to his bodily presents, it makes excellent sense that he’d evaluate himself to Vigorous proper now. Due to his path right here, it makes excellent sense that he mentioned “I actually do not know” what sort of participant he will probably be in 4 or 5 years.
“To be trustworthy, even two years in the past, I wasn’t anticipating to be doing what I am doing proper now,” Missi mentioned. “However I really feel like each time, I am simply studying, after which I will simply attempt to choose stuff from everyone after which attempt to put it collectively and be my very own participant, which is me.”
There’s one projection, nevertheless, that he’s prepared to make: “I believe I will get means higher.”