11:33am: Yabusele has agreed to a one-year deal with Philadelphia, reports Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (via Twitter). It will be minimum-salary contract, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). Yabusele has two years of NBA experience, so his salary for 2024/25 will be $2,087,519.
11:06am: The Sixers and Guerschon Yabusele are in “serious talks” about a contract that would bring the French forward stateside, league sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic.
The news is pretty surprising, given that Yabusele’s buyout clause with Real Madrid is valued at $2.5MM — multiple NBA teams viewed that figure as “prohibitive,” according to Marc Stein (Substack link). However, Charania says Yabusele is working to resolve his situation with the Spanish powerhouse.
As our Luke Adams outlined a couple days ago, NBA teams are only permitted to pay up to $850K this season for an international player’s buyout without that money counting toward their cap. According to Charania, the remaining $1.65MM is what’s being discussed between Yabusele and Real Madrid.
The 16th overall pick in the 2016 draft, Yabusele spent a year as a draft-and-stash prospect in China, then played for the Celtics for two seasons from 2017-19. He appeared in 74 games, including five starts. He averaged 2.3 points and 1.4 rebounds in 7.1 minutes per contest.
The 28-year-old has become a star in Europe over the past several seasons, the past three of which came with Real Madrid. He was one of the top players at the Olympics in Paris, averaging 14 points per game and earning second-team honors while helping France capture the silver medal.
Shortly after France lost to the United States in the gold-medal game, Yabusele indicated he was eager to return to the NBA, and now a deal appears imminent.
There’s a possible solution to the power forward depth issue.
Certainly provides a more traditional PF besides Covington
Covington is not an option anymore.
I thought he was still under contract for some reason. Def a better signing than resigning RoCo
Hes much bigger and stronger than RoCo and probably better from 3 at this point unless his numbers just collapse moving to the NBA line and defense.
And much much much worse on D
Damn, cavs could use him
They need veterans. Not one veteran. You need a guard, forward and big man veteran (in their 30s). A team with no veterans don’t know how to get it done. Tristan is good for a couple minutes a game, add two more veterans like I said and this team is golden
Good for him…well earned! Ben Wallace flashes
Are you joking? The only thing they have in common is their hairstyle. Ben Wallace gonna come find you
You are correct, Wallace couldn’t hit a 3 and was brutal from from the line.
Wallace was an incredible rebounder and four time defensive player of the year. You’re ignorant. Later dummy
He still could not shoot 3s or FTs.
BTW are you Ben’s cousin?
Closer than a cousin, much much much closer.
But yet has rings, dpoy, hof career. 3’s arent everything Self Curry.
Still couldn’t hit a three , brutal from the line and why is Ben Wallace in the hall of fame.
B/c he’s one of the greatest defenders of all time…
Looks like we have a real student of basketball here. I agree on the dummy comment.
I didn’t make the initial comparison but have Definitely, ( notice the the D ) forgotten in a drunken stupor, more basketball, ClaydaDOAT,than you think you know. Step back.
You should self mute, come back after library study. Start with Nesmiths How to build a hoop.
Great landing spot. Opportunity for Yabusele to compete for minutes on a contending team. Philadelphia still needed bodies and now they have a massive one who should contribute immediately.
Hopefully he will be a tough rebounder. Sixers seem to usually be bad in the rebounding game. Embid only gets the ones that bounce right to him. It would be nice to have a power forward that will get in there and fight for rebounds. That was one of the things I liked about Paul Reed. You can never question his effort in rebounding.
I usually don’t agree on critique of Joel, but you are spot on. Joel should dominate the boards.
He isn’t
Great move! The Sixers didn’t have a backup power forward behind Kelly Oubre before this signing.
Maybe Embiid used his French Connection
Watch the French fans call him a traitor for joining Embiid.
I hope not…but yeah that could happen
Showed out on a big stage and gets another chance. Pretty neat for him.
This is exactly what they needed at the 4/smallball 5, especially having lost Paul Reed there. Assuming they play the right rotations, which has been an issue many times in the past, they should be in the mix as a contender, assuming health
A good opportunity for KJ Martin to finally get in a good rotation spot, and then they have Yabusele behind him
Danny Ainge said it would take time but he had the gifts. Go Dancing Bear do your thing.
Not much if a passer. Not much of a defender. Okay rebounder. Has some length. Can score. Kind of just a younger Marcus Morris? Hopefully his current game translates to the NBA.
He could defend coming out of the draft, and every time I’ve seen him, but he hasn’t been around in a long time, so I can’t really say
Also Marcus Morris was a good defender when used right
One positive that Yabu may bring to the Sixers is his size maybe just what Philly needs against certain other 4’s they may face in the East playoffs. I doubt that Nurse would want him trying to chase around Tatum while on defense but his wide frame is great for walling off someone like Giannis, at least until his teammates slide over to help.
We’ve seen other former Celtics players have this type of success with Semi Ojeleye & Grant Williams. His strength may also work well against others like Julius Randle or whoever he’s matched up in Allen or Mobley when facing Cleveland.
I’m not saying he should be considered to start but there’s definitely a realistic possibility of seeing him carve out a role in that Philly rotation.
Its a new year and Philly just reloaded with an entirely new team again.
Yes, Philly fan, we all know you are excited to put together another jigsaw puzzle like roster and yes, we know you think you will win the championship, just like in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024.
Its the same song again. New players, Morey is a genius, we will destroy the world.
Usually, by November you have given up and calling for a new coach, new GM or a trade that can never happen and never will.
Not all those years should be treated equally. It took a long time for Morey to undo all of Colangelo’s nonsense. We just finally got free of that terrible contract given to Harris. When Ben Simmons sabotages his whole career and the guy before you gave the 4th or 5th best player on your team a max contract it’s not easy to quickly fix that.
Maybe they shouldn’t be, but they will be until Philly gets out of the second round.
Can’t get out of the 2nd round in August. I get being skeptical – most Sixers fans are as well. But this is probably the most soundly constructed a Sixers team has been at this point in the league year in some time.
Not arguing, just saying expect to be doubted until you prove them wrong.
That’s what Boston had to do.
Philly probably got tired waiting for Marcus Morris
I just couldn’t see Morris coming back
He said he wanted to…but Cleveland always seemed like a better fir
There are more minutes available at PF for Morris in Philadelphia not Cleveland
The Dancing Bear returns to the states!
Another future trade exception
The Dancing Bear returns!
Nice pickup. Depth is always a good thing. To get a player that can make your rotation. This late, is a good thing.
3 & D power forward problem resolved. Sixers are super deep now.
I still have knicks over them by 5 games for that second spot in the east.