On a recent episode of The Game Theory podcast Sam Vecenie of The Athletic and Cole Zwicker of the Stepien were previewing the Sacramento Kings. There’s tons of great Kings discussion, and it’s well worth your time to check it out. On the show Sam mentioned that he’d recently seen Skal Labissiere at a pickup game at UCLA and discussed how Skal is much bigger and was hard to recognize at first. We hear this a lot over the summer, but then the video came out, and holy cow Skal looks totally different. Here’s a still image from the video.

(Photo capture by Brett Huff)

But if you’re able to, I’d suggest checking out the video below. Skal looks much bigger, and has some nice highlights in a game with other legitimate NBA players including Buddy Hield, Kevin Durant, and Devin Booker.

It’s great to see that Skal’s been putting in the work. It remains to be seen if Skal can find a role in the Sacramento Kings rotation and play with consistency. The frustration with Skal has always been that we see glimpses of incredible talent but then he disappears. Maybe the added size can translate to improved confidence and tenacity on the floor.