untitled-design-6.png
Getty Images

NEW YORK -- Yves Missi is an enormous, super-athletic center who covers an absurd amount of ground on defense. The day before the NBA Draft, Missi described himself as "someone with high motor and high energy who is able to block shots, play defense [and] finish through contact." He regularly threw down thunderous dunks during his single season in college, and, although he's widely seen as a raw prospect, he believes he can contribute to an NBA team immediately as a lob threat and rim protector. 

Remind you of anybody?

"I think y'all saw what Dereck Lively was doing in the playoffs," fellow Baylor draftee Ja'Kobe Walter said. "I think Yves can also do that, especially coming in his first rookie year."

Missi himself has likened his game to Dereck Lively II's in interviews with teams. Given that Lively was taken 12th last year and outperformed his draft position by becoming a crucial part of an NBA Finals team, this is not surprising. Missi said that, like Lively, he thinks he can help his team by bringing energy. He also noted that Lively improved over course of his first season. He thinks he can develop similarly.

"What he did in college definitely translated to the NBA," Missi said. "And I feel like I did some of the things he was doing last year pretty well, and I hope that next I'll be able to do the same stuff on the court in the NBA."

Chances are, Missi's rookie year won't be anything like Lively's, and he shouldn't be held to that standard. The Dallas Mavericks center proved to be far more advanced than advertised as a defender and a decision-maker, and his production was something of a historical aberration: He was the first rookie since Magic Johnson to record 150-plus rebounds in the playoffs or to have consecutive double-doubles in the Finals. That couldn't have happened if he didn't land in an ideal spot; Lively as the guy screening for Luka Doncic is on par with any of The Bear's casting decisions.

In terms of tools, though, Missi is on Lively's level. He's 6-foot-11 without shoes on, he's an extraordinary leaper and, for a 229-pound big man, he's exceptionally light on his feet. His 7-foot-2 wingspan isn't as imposing as that of fellow draftees Alex Sarr (7-foot-4), Donovan Clingan (7-foot-6) and Zach Edey (7-foot-10!), but he makes up for it by exploding off the ground the way they can only dream of. Ask him if he thinks he'll drop or switch more often at the next level, and he will say he's equally comfortable with both.

"I feel like it just depends on how the team wants to defend the pick-and-roll," he said. 

The Athletic's Sam Vecenie described Missi as "one of the safer picks in the draft" because of his superb athleticism, and draft analyst Ben Pfeifer called him a "defensive star hiding in plain sight." Based on his time at Baylor, he's not entering the league with the ability to make the kind of passing reads that Lively did in the short roll. But Lively doesn't attack the basket off the dribble like Missi does.

The more you know about Missi, the more ridiculous his upside seems. The 20-year-old is "very new to the basketball world," he said, "and that's why I think I have a lot of room to grow." On Wednesday, he was selected 21st overall by the New Orleans Pelicans. This time three years ago, he had virtually no experience playing organized basketball. 

Missi grew up in Yaoundé, Cameroon, where, in 2019, agent Bouna Ndiaye and trainer Tim Martin, who count Victor Wembanyama among their many clients, ran the "Why Not Me" basketball camp. Missi had no idea who Ndiaye or Martin were. While both of his parents had played for the Cameroonian national team and his (much) older brother, Steve Moundou-Missi, had hooped for Harvard, he was more into soccer. When a coach suggested he attend the camp, though, Missi took him up on it.

"I was the best young prospect," Missi said. "I mean, I was the youngest guy, there wasn't a lot of us, so I was the best young prospect. And from there, I started really liking basketball."

Four months later, a 15-year-old Missi went to Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri's Giants of Africa camp. Missi remembers the surprise guest who showed up: Pascal Siakam, with the Larry O'Brien trophy in hand. Siakam may have been an NBA champion and the league's reigning Most Improved Player, but, before all that, a basketball camp had changed his life, too.

It is hard to overstate how little formal basketball training Missi had before he came to the United States. He said there were "few basketball courts that have two hoops of the same height" for him to play on. He would "play around" with friends, but, when he arrived at West Nottingham Academy in Colora, Maryland, at 16 years old, basic terminology was new to him.

"It was more like OK, now I learn the pick-and-roll, the pick-and-pop, the expressions and all this," Missi said.

Missi showed up in the middle of the 2020-21 academic year, as a result of visa issues. He flew by himself, and, because of the pandemic, there were "few people in the plane," he said. "Just a weird, weird time to travel." In his first season, if you can call it that, the team only played one game. 

Practices were frequent, though, and it was clear immediately that his learning curve would be steep, especially because of the language barrier. Missi could not yet speak English, which had made for a memorable experience at customs and complicated matters on the court. "My first practice, they were asking me about 'rebounding,'" he said, but he didn't know what the word meant. His one French-speaking teammate assumed the role of interpreter.

"The transition was hard," Missi said. "Just coming from a different continent, different culture and different background."

At West Nottingham, which claims to be the oldest boarding school 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 host family. "They were super, cool, super nice," he said. "They came to our games, they interacted with the team, came to practice sometimes." 

Over time, Missi became accustomed to being away from family, got comfortable communicating in English and developed into a highly sought-after prospect. On the strength of his play in high school and AAU -- he played on the EYBL circuit with the PSA Cardinals -- Missi earned several high-major offers, reclassified to the 2023 high school class and, in January 2023, before he'd even completed two full seasons of organized basketball, committed to Baylor.

Missi knows that, compared to his peers in New York, he had an extremely late start. Wherever he's been, though, his attitude has been the same. "Every time I have an experience to just have a basketball in my hands, I'm learning," he said. Because of his physical gifts, it makes perfect sense that he'd compare himself to Lively right now. Because of his path here, it makes perfect sense that he said "I really don't know" what kind of player he will be in four or five years.

"To be honest, even two years ago, I wasn't expecting to be doing what I'm doing right now," Missi said. "But I feel like every time, I'm just learning, and then I'll just try to pick stuff from everybody and then try to put it together and be my own player, which is me."

There is one projection, however, that he is willing to make: "I think I'll get way better."