Skal Labissiere Hoping to Help Trail Blazers After Trade

At the 2019 NBA trade deadline, the Portland Trail Blazers acquired forward Skal Labissiere of the Sacramento Kings in exchange for forward Caleb Swanigan. Labissiere recently talked with NBC Sports Northwest’s Jamie Hudson about what value he brings to the team:

Just do the little things, come in and help the team out anyway I can...Whether it’s talk on defense, set good screens...I see that the offense, it’s really, like the bigs have to set a lot of screens for Dame and CJ to get them open.

Labissiere has yet to and most likely won’t see much of the court this season, but he’s still looking for ways to improve his game:

Stretching the floor, keep polishing my post game, just reading the game better and defensively—just still learning how to position myself, pick and roll defense and all those little things — moving my feet when switching on smaller guys.

Labissiere has career averages of 8.0 points and 4.5 rebounds in 106 games. He fell out of the rotation in Sacramento this season, playing in just 13 games and averaging only 2.8 points, 1.8 rebounds and 0.5 assists in 8.7 minutes per game.

However, as Dave Deckard pointed out, Labissiere could bring small improvements to the Blazers in the future.

Labissiere also talked about feeling welcomed by the team, which you can read more of from Hudson here.