Perhaps one of the most interesting nuggets to emerge from the Sixers’ media day wasn’t from any of the press conferences, but from a radio hit by president of basketball operations Daryl Morey.
On the Mike Missenelli show on 97.5 The Fanatic, Morey was asked about signing Olympic standout for the French national team Guerschon Yabusele, and what interested Morey in adding him to the roster.
Morey revealed that the team has actually been interested in signing Yabusele for quite some time, though his performance in the 2024 summer games certainly didn’t hurt.
“Actually, we’ve tried to sign him for three seasons,” Morey said.
He explained that Yabusle’s EuroLeague team, Real Madrid, is notoriously difficult to buy contracts out. Since last playing in the NBA for the Boston Celtics in 2019, Yabusele was on a $2.5 million dollar contract with Madrid, according to the Athletic’s Shams Charania.
Not only has the team been interested in Yabusele’s services for a while now, he had another Sixers connection from his first stint in the NBA that made the transition easier.
“My friend from France, Timothe Luwawu [Cabarrot], was playing here,” Yabusele said, “so he was already here with Joel. Of course, the fact that he speaks French, it easier to get to know him.”
Morey cited Yabusele’s steady improvement and a nearing end to his contract, on top of his performance in the Olympics, as reasons the Sixers were able to sign him this summer. For team France this summer, Yabusele averaged 8.3 points and two rebounds per game. He capped off his showcase to get back into the NBA by dunking on Lebron James.
While it was a process getting Yabusele out of his old deal, Morey even hinted that Yabusele might be losing money by playing for the Sixers this season. The fit between him and the Sixers could make a lot of sense from an on-court perspective. Morey also acknowledged this when talking through this process.
“He really wanted to be in Philadelphia,” Morey said. “He really wanted to be with a team that could be as good as us, and one where he saw a lot of roster opportunity.”
That opportunity will come at the power forward position. Their current starter is the 6-foot-5 Caleb Martin. While the team isn’t worried about his height with other wings Paul George and Kelly Oubre, Jr. in the starting lineup, there are some questions about who comes off the bench to play the four.
Yabusele’s current competition for those minutes is KJ Martin, a player signed with the express intent of moving his contract at the upcoming trade deadline, and Ricky Council IV, someone who was on a two-way contract for much of last season and spent most of it in the G-League.
Head coach Nick Nurse seemed excited about the prospect of sliding Yabusele into those minutes.
“[Yabusele] was a great pickup, Just from, you’re looking at the roster all summer long and you’re thinking, Where is a need there? And I think there probably was a need at the four spots,” Nurse said.
He went on to flirt with the idea of using Yabusele as a small-ball five in a thinking-out-loud sort of manner, before saying, “He should have a good chance to impact the rotation.”
So what does Yabusele have to do to make said impact?
The obvious, boring, and probably most important answer is that he’s going to have to make shots at a decent volume.
In his two years with the Celtics, Yabusele shot 32.2% from beyond the arc, taking less than one attempt per game. Seeing the court was a battle during this time. He was only averaging 6.6 minutes per game.
However, his jump shooting with a shorter line in Europe has been a big reason for a potential career resurgence. Overseas, he’s a career 40.6% three-point shooter on 3.3 attempts per game.
While the lines are a lot shorter over there, he’s had seasons where he’s made 48% of his threes and other seasons where he’s taken over five attempts a game.
He is very aware of just how important volume shooting will be for this supporting cast he hopes to be a part of.
“With the importance of Joel Embiid on the team and his aggression in the paint, he’s going to draw a lot of double teams,” Yabusele said. “When he kicks out the ball, I need to be able to knock those threes down and work on my shot—and be able to make plays, too. So I think the three-point shot will help me a lot this season.”
Yabusele is confident in his shot, saying it’s something he’s feeling good about, but he also feels he’s improved much of his overall game, which will help him get a second chance.
“I just learned a lot about the game, the IQ of the game—the movement; shooting; being aggressive; being able to have the ball in my hands and make decisions,” he said. “I really got better in all those points. And of course the shot got better, too. I play with more energy now and I can control the game more than what I was able to do when I was with the Celtics.”
From almost all accounts, this is a completely different player than the guy at the end of the Celtics’ bench six years ago. Now, it’s time to go out and prove it.
