Skal Labissiere is the only pending free agent who chose to participate in Hawks minicamp.
Since he’s been fully healthy for a while now, though, the decision was an easy one for the former Portland power forward/center the Hawks acquired at the trade deadline.
“Just to show that I’m ready to go, I can play,” Labissere said of why he chose to attend. “I’m ready to play. I’ve been out since December, and I’ve been doing rehab with the team that whole time, so for me I just wanted to show that ‘Hey, I’m ready to go,’ I’m ready to play, and I feel good. I just want to play basketball. It’s been a long time since I’ve played.
"I think the best thing to get back out there and play is against NBA competition, so I was going to get that here and in an organized setting, so I just wanted to get out there and play.”
Because of a left knee chondral injury, Labissiere hadn’t played since December and has yet to make his Hawks debut. After the NBA season was suspended because of the coronavirus March 11, Labissiere continued to focus on getting the strength back in his legs, often FaceTiming with Hawks trainers for virtual workouts sessions (in May, the practice facility opened back up for individual workouts). He thinks the extended period of time off actually worked to his benefit, since it allowed him time to heal and recover.
Now, for minicamp, Labissiere has no limitations and is a full participant in 5-on-5 and other team activity.
Though he’s not under contract for next year yet, Labissiere said would love to be in Atlanta come the 2020-21 season, if the Hawks do re-sign him. The Hawks already have John Collins, Bruno Fernando, Dewayne Dedmon and Clint Capela under contract for next year, but general manager Travis Schlenk has said he’ll look to add depth in free agency, and previously said he had tried to acquire Labissiere before, indicating he’s a fan of Labissiere’s.
“I would love to be here,” Labissiere said. “Obviously, if I was not interested in being here I would not be here doing training camp, I could have been just working out somewhere else and not in the bubble setting. I’m very interested in being here, and we’ll see.”
Labissiere, 24, thinks his experience can help a young Hawks team. With Portland last season, he added 5.8 points and 5.1 rebounds in 17.2 minutes per game.
“From my past experiences, I’ve been on young teams before, I’ve been on a winning team before, as far as Portland goes, and I really think that I can help the team, whatever they need me to do, I’ll be there to do it, (if) they decide to re-sign me,” Labissiere said. “But I really think that I can help on and off the court, in the locker room, just leading by example, really.”
Coach Lloyd Pierce said Labissiere had a good day of practice Wednesday, the first day of minicamp team practices. That stood out, especially considering that first day back after six-plus months of no team activity was otherwise pretty sloppy.
“He was actually really good (Wednesday),” Pierce said. “Instantly, you see a guy, I mentioned (in practice) it’s sloppy, it’s hectic, they’re fouling, physical, a lot of energy, we were playing a lot of elbow stuff, playing through the elbow, and using our bigs as facilitators a little bit, and he’s a guy that wasn’t rushed, he’s very poised, he’s a very skilled player and he just played at his own place and it was good to see. … He’s been healthy for a long time, that’s one of the unfortunate things. He’s been healthy for a long time, he’s been wanting to play.
"It’s been a great offseason for him and he looked good (Wednesday).”
For the first few days of practice, Labissiere is just looking to get used to playing again.
But, since he hasn’t had much in-person time with the rest of the team, he’s also looking forward to team-bonding activities, which are the main focus of the Hawks' mini-bubble (no point on heavily focusing on X’s and O’s when you have only two weeks together). So far, Labissiere is closest with Clint Capela, as both of them speak French.
“I think that’s very important, especially as a young team trying to win games, that’s going to translate into winning games later on," Capela said. "So any time we can get to spend together is a good thing for us.”
