NEW ORLEANS — After the second game of his NBA career, Yves Missi’s teammates were giddy, exuding energy.
The New Orleans Pelicans had just won their first game of the season after a last-second jumper by Brandon Ingram secured a narrow win in Portland. Although Missi was the youngest player in the room, he couldn’t match the energy of his more exuberant teammates in the visitors’ locker room. Instead, he remained in front of his stall with a blank expression on his face and a Gatorade clutched in his right hand. After a few staff members approached to congratulate him on his performance, he slowly lifted his head and let out a soft chuckle before asking a question.
“We’ve got to do this 80 more times?”
It was all hitting him at once: the grueling NBA schedule, the physicality required to compete at this level, the mental and physical toll it takes to be ready nightly.
“It’s tough. It’s different than anything I’ve ever experienced in my life,” Missi told The Athletic last month while reflecting on his rookie season. “The funny thing is, looking back to (the start of the season), if you told me then, ‘Yeah, you’re going to do this and that during your rookie year,’ no way I would’ve believed it.”
He wouldn’t have been alone in his disbelief. Instead, while nearly everything around him has been chaotic during this disastrous, injury-filled Pelicans season, Missi has been a source of consistency and optimism. With nine games left in his rookie season, Missi is averaging 8.9 points and 8.1 rebounds. He leads his team in games started (61). He leads all rookies in total rebounds (540), is tied with Miami’s Kel’el Ware for the lead in double-doubles (11) and trails only Portland’s Donovan Clingan for most blocks (92). In a down year for rookies, Missi is likely heading for a spot on an All-Rookie team.
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The Pelicans weren’t expecting anything like this when they selected the Cameroonian 21st in last June’s NBA Draft. New Orleans was high on Missi and felt fortunate he fell to them. Still, even his biggest supporters in the organization thought he needed time to develop before cracking the regular rotation.
This was the same guy who started playing basketball when he was 14. He didn’t move to the United States until he was 16. He went into his first season at Baylor believing he’d redshirt — not participate in games. One year later, he was in the NBA. Missi’s unorthodox journey has shown he’s a quick learner, and his development on the floor has come at a rapid pace.
“He’s been a huge positive for us all year. Coming into the season, his role wasn’t where it is now, but he kept working, kept earning trust from the coaching staff and his teammates,” Pelicans coach Willie Green said. “Even though we haven’t been that successful as a team this year, Yves’ development has been a big success for us.”
At 20, Missi has already shown he has the traits to become a reliable starting center who can impact the game on both ends. He moves with agility and explosive athleticism for a player his size — 6-foot-11, 235 pounds. He’s played so well that he forced the Pelicans to alter their plans coming into the season when they were already preparing to shift their identity in a significant way.
Before injuries decimated the team, the plan coming out of training camp was for New Orleans to go into opening night with a starting lineup that did not feature a traditional center. The Pelicans wanted to go at least the first few weeks of the season with Dejounte Murray, CJ McCollum, Herb Jones, Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson as the starting five with hopes of leaning on small-ball lineups that highlighted the team’s depth on the perimeter.
And if that didn’t work, New Orleans brought in veteran big man Daniel Theis on a one-year deal to serve as the backup plan at center. But it didn’t take long for Missi to start turning heads once the team got him in the building.
It started with a few flashes.
During his first few days in training camp in Nashville, Missi felt like everything was moving at hyper speed. Playing with pros was a different challenge.
Still, he found ways to capture the attention of his teammates and coaches. He had a couple of athletic blocks and rim-shaking jams off lob passes. He even threw down a ferocious putback dunk one day that brought the entire gym to a halt.
Green, known for his patient approach with young players, gradually gave Missi more chances to play alongside his main rotation players to assess how he’d fit.
In the Pelicans’ final preseason game, Green started Missi in the second half instead of Theis. While playing with the Pels’ regular starters (excluding Williamson), Missi finished three lobs at the rim and blocked a shot by Rockets All-Star Alperen Şengün.
“He showed he could be a really, really good fit with our guys,” said Ingram, prior to being traded from New Orleans to Toronto in February. “He brought something that was different from the bigs we’ve had the past few years. Having that lob threat makes us a lot more dangerous.”
Missi’s role continued to grow. He became the full-time starting center after six games. With most of the Pelicans’ key players sidelined due to injuries early in the season, Missi’s importance increased significantly. His steady approach amid the frequent lineup changes earned him even greater respect within the organization.
He also separated himself by becoming an excellent shot blocker and offensive rebounder. Among players averaging at least 25 minutes per game, Missi is third in offensive rebounding percentage, trailing only Utah’s Walker Kessler and Detroit’s Jalen Duren. He’s fifth in the NBA in total offensive rebounds, needing 17 more over the final nine games to become the first rookie since Blake Griffin in 2010-11 to reach 250 offensive rebounds.
During one six-game stretch that was part of an 11-game losing streak in December, Missi matched up against Victor Wembanyama, Domantas Sabonis, Myles Turner, Şengün, Karl-Anthony Towns and Nikola Jokić in consecutive games — a group that includes four former/current All-Stars and a three-time MVP. They all presented different stylistic problems.
Missi averaged 12.5 points and 11.2 rebounds in those six games while shooting 57.7 percent from the field. In a 132-129 overtime loss to Denver on Dec. 22, Missi finished with 21 points, nine rebounds and three blocks and held his own against Jokić. The rookie had one of his best performances while battling an all-time great at center.
Missi was eventually awarded Western Conference Rookie of the Month for December, becoming the first Pelican to earn that honor in any month since Williamson in 2020.
“Those games were super important for me. All of those guys are so talented. They really bring the best out of you,” Missi said. “I just wanted to show I was ready for that moment — ready to compete against the best of the best.”
With each step Missi takes in his development, he solidifies himself as a crucial part of this team’s future. Despite some of the uncertainty surrounding New Orleans heading into the offseason, having a clear plan at center is an important development for a team that looked to be in desperate need at that spot in October.
With a cost-friendly, younger player filling in at starting center, the Pelicans can focus more on adding perimeter talent with Ingram gone and Murray sidelined indefinitely with a ruptured Achilles tendon. There will be no need to trade draft assets or young players to find someone else to fill that spot, like the team has done in the past. It also makes it easier for the Pelicans to go in any direction with the lottery pick they’ll have in June.
If Missi is going to be the starting center of the future, he understands a crucial part of succeeding will be figuring out his fit next to Williamson.
Williamson is one of the most paint-dominant scorers in the NBA. Missi does most of his damage with dunks and layups. It took some time for the rookie to adjust to the pairing, with offensive spacing a predictable issue. Williamson’s hamstring injury that sidelined him for 27 games hurt Missi’s ability to form chemistry with the Pelicans star.
But since Williamson’s return, the minutes with Missi and Williamson on the floor together have been a crucial learning ground for them and the organization. Once again, Missi’s adaptability has helped speed up the process. Williamson frequently speaks with Missi during games to make sure they’re finding ways to play off each other.
Since Williamson’s return in early January, Missi and Williamson have played 344 minutes together. The Pelicans have been outscored by just 25 points in those minutes, a strong number considering the team’s overall play. The progress has been apparent.
“Yves is a very receptive person whenever you give him information. Playing with him, it’s been an easy adjustment,” Williamson said in January. “As we play (more) on the court together, the chemistry is going to build. … I don’t think it’s going to take us long to figure that spacing out.”
Part of the lesson for Missi has been knowing that success next to Williamson isn’t just about standing in the dunker spot on the baseline and waiting for an opportunity. It’s about staying active and taking advantage of the space Williamson opens up on the floor.
Missi’s also worked to expand the types of shots he’s attempting. In recent weeks, he’s attempted more floaters and push shots to stretch out his shot profile and give Williamson that extra step or two of space while defenders are trying to load up on him. This will be a big part of Missi’s work in the offseason.
He even knocked down a free-throw jumper in Monday’s win over the 76ers.
“We’ve worked on his floater a lot this year. He’s got great touch when he puts them up,” Pelicans assistant coach Darnell Lazare said. “Now, it’s just about building up that confidence.”
Lazare has been a crucial voice for Missi this season. Lazare is usually easy to spot in his seat behind the bench, offering advice to Missi when the rookie walks off the floor. Missi said Lazare has been like “a big brother” for him and their work has been a big part of adding nuance to his game while also focusing on his priorities closer to the rim.
The coaching staff has been mindful about not putting too much of a workload on Missi to make sure he could provide quality minutes throughout his rookie season. While some other first-year players hit “the rookie wall” throughout the season, Missi has been largely consistent in his role from start to finish.
“We’ve thrown a lot on him early as a young player, but I think he’s handled it well. His ability to process information is very, very high,” Lazare said. “I try to keep encouraging him, because when you’re playing as much as he is as a rookie, it’s a lot. But I also want to keep challenging him to reiterate how good he is and where I think he can end up in this league. I try to always make him understand that to be great he has to take care of all those little things.”
Play center, Lazare has frequently told Missi, requires non-negotiables. It begins with being extremely vocal on the defensive end. In most cases, it’s the center’s job to be the quarterback on the back line of the defense that keeps everyone on the same page.
“He’s a naturally quiet person, so I always tell him he has to be comfortable with being the loudest person on the floor,” Lazare said. “When you look at the guys who have been elite in this league, they’re very vocal, they’re loud, they’re talking all the time on the defensive end.”
Next is being reliable around the basket to catch passes and finish around the rim. This may be where Missi has excelled the most. But that hasn’t been the case with non-negotiable No. 3: defensive rebounding.
Heading into Thursday’s games, New Orleans ranked last in defensive rebounding percentage. A few months ago, Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations David Griffin called this year’s Pelicans “one of the worst rebounding teams of the last 15 years in the NBA.”
Even though Missi is a rookie, much of the team’s failures in that area falls on his shoulders. His 17.0 individual defensive rebounding percentage is lower than those of perimeter-based forwards such as P.J. Washington, Santi Aldama and Miles Bridges. That’s unacceptable for a player with his rebounding acumen and role.
The coaching staff has pushed Missi to focus on his defensive rebounding more. Coaches say his commitment to boxing out and keeping opponents off the offensive glass has improved tremendously compared to where he was at the start of the season. However, a big part of his growth as a rebounder starts with adding muscle over the offseason, which would make it easier for him to hold his own under the basket.
“Once his defensive rebounding matches what he’s doing on the offensive glass, the sky is the limit for him,” Lazare said.
Looking ahead to next season, a starting lineup featuring Trey Murphy, Murray, Jones, Williamson and Missi makes a lot of sense on paper. The athleticism and versatility they would bring could be dangerous. Alas, in true Pelicans fashion, the nature of the injuries to Murray, Jones and Murphy will guarantee they don’t line up together in October.
That reality and normal offseason change keep stability out of reach for the Pelicans. But having Missi there to clear up some of the concerns at center should make life much easier for everyone involved.
(Top photo: Brett Davis / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
