Luigi Suigo: The Italian Unicorn

A scouting deepdive on Luigi Suigo, the next big thing out of Italy.

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Oct 12, 2024

After having had an intriguing FIBA summer, and now an impressive outing at a prestigious U18 tournament in Spain playing for his regular club Olimpia Milano, Italian 17 year-old big Luigi Suigo is in the midst of quite a run. He is quickly establishing himself as one of the premier draft prospects in all of not just Italy, but Europe as a whole.

The physical profile

The intrigue with Suigo begins with his physical tools, as his physical profile has really taken a leap: in December 2022, when I first scouted him at the Íscar U16 Tournament, Suigo was a tall but lanky 7’0 C with some glimpses of touch that struggled with mobility and balance amidst an ongoing growth spurt. Fast-forward to the summer of 2024, and Suigo is now a towering 7’3, 240 lbs behemoth with an almost 7’6 wingspan and a 9’5 standing reach.

If these measurements sound preposterous, that’s because, well, they are! The list of NBA players boasting similar measurements is quite slim:

The closest comparison is probably Moses Brown. The former McDonalds All-American and UCLA Bruin —as recently as yesterday signed by the New York Knicks to a training camp contract— clocked in at 7’2.5 with a 7’5.75 wingspan and a 9’5 standing reach in his Draft Combine measurements - almost identical height, length and wingspan numbers to Luigi Suigo. Brown tipped the scales at 237 lbs to Suigo’s 241 lbs, although Brown did so in his age 20 season and Suigo was merely 17 at the time of his measurements being taken. Brown is now listed closer to 260 lbs, perhaps a progression that we might expect to see from Suigo himself as well.
Another close comparison is Boston Celtics star Kristaps Porzingis, whose unofficial measurements are quite similar to Suigo’s at 7’2 with a 7’6 wingspan and a reported 9’2 standing reach. Porzingis is now listed at 240 lbs as of the start of the 24-25 season, as a 29-year-old, so it would be reasonable to expect Suigo to tip the scales at a bigger number whenever he declares for the NBA draft.
The Charlotte Hornets’ budding star and former Duke Blue Devil standout Mark Williams is also a close comparison, at a slightly smaller 7’2 in height but with a 7’6.50 wingspan and a mammoth 9,9 standing reach, with again a weight right about Suigo’s at 242 lbs.
His height and wingspan are actually about on par with Canadian C Zach Edey’s, but the newly-minted Memphis Grizzly has much more heft, clocking in at 299 lbs in his recent Draft combine.

Although Suigo’s athleticism remains a bit of a work in progress —he had subpar scores at basically all the athletic testing components in the Basketball Without Borders combine—, he is developing steadily in this area as well, especially taking into account that he’s still 17 and his athleticism is still catching up to his growth. He is stronger and more balanced than he used to, able to establish position after pick and rolls without losing his balance and catch and finish with more coordination, and in the recent Torrent U18 tournament he was able to overpower some high-caliber European bigs who are very much D1 prospects in their own right, even if he was unable to really impose himself inside against fellow draft prospect Sidi Gueye, from Real Madrid.

What’s the vision?

So then, why would an NBA team draft Suigo? Well, the intrigue with Suigo is very clear: he has the upside to be a 3&D big man, which is a very rare and valuable archetype of player in the NBA.

On the defensive end, Suigo’s size and length makes him an incredible deterrent at the rim as long as he’s in position: he’s just huge and takes up enormous amounts of space inside the paint. Although he struggles with foul trouble a bit at this stage —not a rare thing for bigs of this ilk—, Suigo’s impact is noticeable the second he steps onto the court, as the types of shots that opponents take is completely altered. Layups and rim-attempts become rare occurrences, and driving guards and forwards tend to settle for more inefficient floaters or pull-up jumpshots to avoid his paint protection inside. As he learns to control his body and is his core strength improves in time, Suigo will be able to avoid foul trouble and simply wall off the rim more often. While he can still be outmuscled by some of the very best bigs in Europe, it’s by no means as easy a feat as it was earlier in his young career and Suigo’s continued improvement in this area hints at him becoming a big and strong enough C that he will be just as impactful against fellow big men as he already is against opposing perimeter players.

Just as importantly, Suigo is not a slow, plodding big man. While he’s still a work in progress and will continue to be so until his athleticism catches up to his growth, Suigo is making incredible strides. Just three months ago, at the FIBA summer tournaments, he could be attacked in space and looked a bit flimsy defending the pick and roll at times. However, in the Torrent U18 tournament at the end of September, we saw a different version of Suigo, one that is coordinated and agile enough to be a part of Olimpia Milano’s switching scheme and who was able to stay in front of some of the very best generators in the European 2007 generation. This is the vision on the defensive end: a rim protector with an elite standing reach that will not be easily exploited in space, perhaps not as a core tenet of a switching scheme at an NBA level but absolutely being able to hang while not being a liability in drop coverages and being able to do some switching at the end of the shot clock.

On the offensive side of the ball, the intrigue is just as clear: it’s the shooting.

Suigo has never been a knockdown shooter, but he has consistently showed glimpses, all the way back to that U16 Íscar Tournament in 2022 when I first scouted him. The shooting stroke has always looked fine, with a slow but compact release and some clear touch, and he has always made perimeter shooting a part of his warm-up routine. He has always hovered around the 30% mark from deep, which is actually quite a good clip for a youth player as the accuracy at U18 categories is obviously lower than it is in the pros. What’s relevant is that, in the U18 Torrent tournament, Suigo upped the volume quite a bit: from averaging 1.8 3PA during FIBA play, Suigo almost doubled the attempt rate to 3 attempts per 36, while maintaining the accuracy at 33%.

Shooting is not the only skill that Suigo has offensively, as he has shown to be an improving finisher as his strength and athleticism develop. His size and frame make him an interesting screener, and he’s a huge target for his guards in the pick and roll and should be a good finisher once his body matures and he’s able to establish and hold position inside more effectively. He’s also been featured a bit in Olimpia Milano’s offense as a low-post option and, while he’s by no means a dominant shot-creator from that spot, he has shown to have a slow, wheeling drop step towards the baseline and good touch on hook shots, as well as the ability to make good reads and find cutters if the pass is open.

If the shooting does come around, Suigo could develop into one of the most sought-after player archetypes in basketball: a big man who can both protect the rim and shoot from the perimeter, while remaining playable on both ends and not being targeted defensively in space. The list of current NBA bigs that check all those boxes is very short: Indiana Pacers’ big man Myles Turner, Milwaukee Bucks’ veteran Brook Lopez, Boston Celtic’s duo of Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford (although the Dominican doesn’t quite protect the rim at this level any more), at a lower level perhaps recently-signed Chicago Bull Jalen Smith and, well, that might be about it. These players are super valuable to NBA teams, because they enable 5-out spacing or they allow for different lineup combinations. For instance: imagine just how valuable this type of player would be next to an athletic but undersized 4 with shooting limitations like, say, Pelicans’ Zion Williamson, or new Minnesota Timerwolf Julius Randle.

How can it break down?

Now, the path to the NBA is always complicated, mostly because the level that athletes have to reach is incredibly high and there’s a myriad ways in which they may simply not get to the standard they need to get to. For Suigo, the main challenge will likely be the mobility, athleticism and core, functional strength. Suigo has shown vast improvements in his athleticism, but he’s still a bit uncoordinated and unbalanced. While the steps forward he’s taken in switching schemes recently are very encouraging, NBA athletes, and especially NBA guards, are a completely different challenge, and NBA spacing, with the longer 3-point line, will make defending in space a more difficult proposition for a prospect in Suigo’s mould. Suigo’s core strength and balance could also be a chink in his armour: Suigo has somewhat high hips and will need to improve his core strength significantly to be able to carry out the big man role successfully by doing all the traditional big man things —finishing, rebounding, post defense…— at a high level. In Torrent, this was his biggest weakness. Although he showed that he could dominate against some teams, he did struggle quite a bit more against FC Barcelona and Real Madrid - despite putting up decent stats, he couldn’t really make his presence felt against high-level athletes that play with extreme physicality. Ultimately, the shooting is only a valuable skill if Suigo is able to play reliably as an NBA big; otherwise, his shooting simply won’t move the needle enough for him to have a spot in an NBA rotation.

The other aspect that may just break down is the shooting. Suigo’s intrigue is based on the combination of rim protection and shooting. It seems clear that he will be a plus rim protector considering his size, length and production. The shooting, however, is not quite as clear. While he has shot around 33%, the volume in the past has been very low, and the shooting hasn’t really been a central part of his teams’ game at the highest levels of club or National Team basketball in Europe. While he may continue developing as he has up to now, he may also not develop the shooting any further, and a 33% shooter on low volume is not quite as interesting an archetype for an NBA roster, even when considering his size and physical traits.

What’s the pathway?

Suigo is on an excellent upwards trajectory right now, improving by the month and showing he can compete with the very best. Already attracting interesting from High Major schools as a Class of 2026 recruit, scouts will be looking for Suigo to really be an impactful factor on a consistent basis in European U18 competition this season. His All-Tournament bid in Torrent earlier at the end of September was a good start, but he will need to replicate that, or even improve on it, in ANGT and in FIBA summer competitions, where he will likely be a part of the U18 FIBA Euro squad for Italy. Scouts will keep an eye on him in these settings, watching especially his physicality on both ends and whether he’s able to increase his usage both as a finisher and as a perimeter shooter.

Suigo is primed for a big season playing for Olimpia Milano, the best Italian team, where he will compete in the Italian U19 league and in the 4th division of Italian basketball against semi-pro grown men - an excellent chance to keep improving his physicality and ability to play through contact. There’s still plenty of time for him to develop, but prospects with his size and shooting upside are extremely rare to come by and Suigo should absolutely be on every scouts’ radar for the next few seasons as a potential NBA draft prospect.