Sixers forward Guerschon Yabusele
Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images
Sixers forward Guerschon Yabusele
After returning to the NBA last summer, Guerschon Yabusele is preparing for unrestricted free agency. He spent this past season with the Philadelphia 76ers. However, he was unable to stop the Sixers slide into obscurity, as they dealt with a plethora of injury issues.
During a recent interview with HoopsHype, Yabusele detailed what he’s looking for as he prepares for the upcoming free agency period.
“Now that I’ve been on the team where I played and a lot of minutes too, I want to be in a situation where I can play too,” Yabusele said. “I’m not asking to play 40 minutes a game. That would be crazy. But just to be in the right situation for me, for the team, having a goal that we can achieve and have a bunch of guys looking to the right direction.”
Yabusele continued.
“And if it’s with the 76ers, I’ll be more than happy. This has been a great, great season and time for me. The fans have been showing me nothing but love, even the organization. If I have to go back there, I’d be more than happy. And then if you’ve got to be somewhere else, I’d be happy, too. I just want to be on a team where we compete and we have the same goals.”
Yabusele was impressive for the Sixers last season. He played in 70 games and averaged 11 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.1 assists, shooting 50.1% from the field and 38% from 3-point range.
Cost to Reatain Yabusele Has Been Revealed
According to Keith Smith and Trevor Lane, speaking on the “NBA Front Office Show,” Yabusele is a logical candidate to to sign a deal for the full taxpayer MLE. That exception is expected to sit around $5.67 million next season. Of course, there’s no guarantee the Sixers will be the team to extend that offer to the impressive forward.
“5.685 million so $5.67 million, on the taxpayer mid-level expectation,” Smith said. That’s about where I see him as well. I think he’s going to get a bump over his minimum contract that he played for this year. Between the work he did overseas, the Olympics, and then the way that translated into him having a very strong NBA season, it’s no longer a prove-it type situation for him…Five-six million bucks sure, yeah, that makes sense, especially if you’re a team where it is. We don’t have a lot of holes to fill. We really need somebody who is a true four, but can play a little bit of small-ball five.”
Considering the impact Yabusele had this past season, it’s fair to expect multiple teams will show an interest in him this summer. As such, the Sixers could face a fight to retain the forward if they hope to bring him back on a longer-term deal.
Morey Wants to Keep Yabusele With Sixers
During a recent news conference, Morey was honest in his hopes keep Yabusele around beyond this season.
“We love what Guerschon was able to bring,” Morey said, via Ky Carlin of Sixers Wire. “I think that was a great job by our scouting department. A great job by the coaching staff getting the most out of him. Just like Paul (George), he got pressed into some roles that were a little different from what he thought. We thought he was gonna play more of the 4 and he’s excelled there. He gave us a lot of minutes at the 5 as well.”
The Sixers have a lot of questions to answer in the coming months. However, once the upcoming draft is out of the way, what they do with Yabusele will be the next big question. He’s earned the opportunity to stay with the franchise in a bigger role. Whether Philadelphia can afford to keep him around will remain to be seen, though.