The Philadelphia 76ers are extremely likely to lose Guerschon Yabusele in free agency, and really, they only have themselves to blame. But in this case, we are not only talking about the financial handicaps they willingly embraced thanks to their reckless Vegas-ian largesse from a year ago.
All eyes are now on free agency, and the 76ers have one of the bleaker footings among all teams in the league. The franchise already finds itself in a state of flux, and while their recent escapade in the 2025 NBA Draft may have helped unfurl some raised brows, there remains a lot of doubt as to the team’s ability to make a deep playoff run next season.
Losing Yabusele will only exacerbate their winning cause. While it is difficult to pin so much heft on a role player who barely registered 10 points per game last season, the Frenchman has been so vital to the team’s dynamics on both ends that the thought of him going elsewhere should immediately alarm those who are already penciling them in for a grand comeuppance in the 2025-26 campaign.
And for that, we can only blame a huge mistake which somehow went unnoticed throughout the year.
The 76ers will deeply regret not trading Guerschon Yabusele before the trade deadline
Yabusele has already drawn some compelling offers according to some rumors, and given how the market for his services appear to be panning out, there is little reason to believe that the 76ers can mount a serious bid to keep him on the roster against more lucrative offers the other teams can tender to him and his camp.
If you would ask me, Philadelphia’s front office deserves a big share of the pie blame. The 76ers were adamant about keeping Yabusele despite reported offers for them to trade the Frenchman before the deadline, yet they insisted on their already-bleak chances of retaining him in free agency. Even more amusing is the fact that no one has really talked about this.
It would seem that the “epic NBA comeback” narrative prevailed over reasonable heads. The 76ers could have extracted some assets for Yabusele, but they chose not to even dip their fingers into that think piece. Now, they will soon feel the effects of losing him for absolutely nothing.
While Philly can still technically bring him back, doing so would force them to shun the idea of re-signing Quentin Grimes, who seems to be higher on their priority list. Clearly, that is not a trade-off they would be willing to concede.
At this juncture, the Philadelphia 76ers have little to no control over how the Guerschon Yabusele sweepstakes will turn out. They can kick the blankets for placing themselves in a shackle money-wise, but really, they should have seen this coming and acted accordingly.