After being released by the Celtics earlier this offseason, Guerschon Yabusele appears poised to return to China. A source tells Emiliano Carchia of Sportando that Yabusele has agreed to terms with the Nanjing Monkey Kings of the Chinese Basketball Association.
Yabusele, 23, has previously spent time playing in China. After being selected 16th overall by Boston in the 2016 draft, he remained overseas for one more year with the CBA’s Shanghai Sharks.
The young power forward joined the Celtics for the 2017/18 season and spent the last two years with the team, but failed to develop into a reliable rotation piece. In 74 total games, he averaged 2.3 PPG and 1.4 RPG in just 6.6 minutes per contest.
Although Yabusele’s $3.1MM NBA salary for 2019/20 was guaranteed, the Celtics determined that waiving him and stretching his salary would be in the team’s best interest — it opened up a roster spot and created a little extra cap flexibility, allowing Boston to sign Vincent Poirier and Carsen Edwards using cap room.
He should only shoot 3s and grabbing boards over there. Work on that, come back and you’ll have a role somewhere in the league.
That’s a nice theory, but the Chinese Basketball Association is not a developmental league for the NBA or its players. I’m pretty sure the Monkey Kings are going to want him to do more than just specialize in a couple of things. Nanking is paying him a lot of money to be a complete player. If he needs to improve ONLY specialized skills, he has his own time for that.
Shooting 3s in the gym doesn’t mean you’ll be able to make them in the game. Shaq could also make 3s on his own time. Havent seen $ released, may not be a lot.
Doesn’t matter if it is a lot or a little, they are still paying him to be THEIR player. They are not paying him to practice to be someone else’s player.