With the 2024-25 Sixers season officially in the rearview mirror, the time has come to evaluate the few highs and many lows of a disastrous campaign in which the team only managed 24 wins. We will do so in "Sixers year-in-review," a series assessing each individual Sixers player's performance this year based on numbers, film and quotes, while also looking ahead to the future.
Up next: Guerschon Yabusele, whose stellar run for Team France in the 2024 Olympics convinced the Sixers to give him the chance to return to the NBA after a half-decade overseas.
Playing on a veteran's minimum contract, Yabusele was a rotation fixture for the Sixers, one of the only reliable pieces of a team that fell apart.
His quality minutes at two different positions and impressive three-point shooting production could make him a sought-after free agent.
SIXERS YEAR-IN-REVIEW
Joel Embiid | Guerschon Yabusele
What we learned in 2024-25
Yabusele is not just a rotation-caliber NBA player, but a rotation-caliber NBA center.
When the Sixers added Yabusele to put the finishing touches on their initial standard roster, they did so in hopes he could be a viable rotation piece at power forward, his natural position. There was not much thought of him playing anywhere else, but when Joel Embiid was out of commission when training camp began, head coach Nick Nurse decided to see what things looked like with Yabusele manning the middle.
By the time the season began, Yabusele was the Sixers' backup center behind Andre Drummond with Embiid sidelined; he quickly leapfrogged Drummond in the pecking order at the five. Yabusele's ability to protect the rim was better than expected, even if that will never be his strong suit as he is generously listed at 6-foot-8. His toughness, often the subject of praise from his teammates throughout the season, helped him hang around on the glass. It was never completely pretty on defense, but offensively…
Number to know
The Sixers' offensive rating with Yabusele playing center, according to Cleaning The Glass: 116.4 (65th percentile).
One of the key changes Yabusele made during his lengthy stint overseas was refining his jumper, and the Sixers hoped his improved three-point shooting numbers in recent years would translate to the NBA, even with the increased distance from what Yabusele had grown used to. Nurse admitted last week that the team had some skepticism about the degree to which he should be a trusted spot-up shooter.
"The thing that I was probably most concerned about was how he was going to shoot it from the perimeter," Nurse said, "and he ended up putting a really good body of work in there… He did really good there."
Indeed he did, as Yabusele knocked down 38 percent of his long-range tries. He did so on significant volume, taking 3.9 three-point attempts per game (7.1 attempts per 100 possessions). Yabusele hovered around 40 percent for much of the season and never once showed any hesitation. If he had room to fire away, he fired away, and defenses reacted accordingly. Yabusele became a genuine floor-spacer, which not only opened up the floor for drivers but also allowed him to attack closeouts. Yabusele's shot was the driving force behind his status as a quality offensive center, but it was not the only one…
MORE: Daryl Morey takes blame for disastrous season
Important film
Yabusele's passing jumped out as a standout skill almost immediately, and the Sixers found more ways to utilize it as the season went on. The most common fashion in which it helped the Sixers: when Tyrese Maxey or other guards were blitzed, Yabusele proved to be an excellent processor and passer in short rolls and 4-on-3 situations:
Guerschon Yabusele makes a crisp bounce pass to a cutter on a short roll: pic.twitter.com/AJV8uvMNmD
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) November 9, 2024
“So, I didn’t know it was going to be that much, to be honest," Yabusele said in an interview with PhillyVoice last month. "But then the season started and I was like, ‘Okay, yeah, I need to be there because they’re going to blitz [Maxey] every game.' Being able to make sure I’m open and able to pass the ball after that is a huge key, so for sure I was really thinking that I need to be open to make sure I help.”
Nurse said that one of the Sixers' "daily habits" in practices during the season was reacting to the double-teams Maxey and Embiid are inevitably shown, and that will not change in the near future. The Sixers need quick and trustworthy decision-makers on the offensive end, and Yabusele is exactly that.
MORE: Yabusele's passing helps Sixers, who hope to teach Adem Bona the same skill
Salient soundbite
Maxey on Yabusele after the Sixers' Dec. 23 win over the San Antonio Spurs:
"Yabu's been great, dude. He's done so many different things: played the five, played the four, started, come off the bench. Like, he's done everything that the coaches have asked him to do. And all you can do is appreciate someone like that, man. Shooting threes, rebounding, posting up. Sometimes we're going to throw the ball to him in the post because he's a matchup problem down there, he knows how to score. Yabu's been great… Yabu's been great."
Question heading into the future
If Yabusele returns to the Sixers, how will his minutes be distributed across the power forward and center positions?
Sixers President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey said at his exit interview on Sunday that the team would love to bring Yabusele back this summer, then volunteered the idea that if he does return, his "mix" of minutes positionally would be much different — the implication being that Embiid will play significantly more, allowing Yabusele to slide down to his natural position at the four and play there much more often than he plays the five. If Embiid did end up being consistently available, Yabusele would likely be the favorite to lead the team in minutes at power forward. But that is far from a certainty — in fact, it feels distinctly unlikely as things stand now.
The likeliest scenario is probably something closer to a 50/50 split between the two positions for Yabusele if he returns, but that is assuming the Sixers do not land a high-minute power forward in the offseason. It is too early to give a definitive prediction on this front, but the eventual landing spot for his minutes at each position will determine how much the nature of his role changes from year to year. He is clearly a better offensive player at the five, but he is clearly less vulnerable defensively in most lineups at the four.
Contract information
Yabusele is an unrestricted free agent, who on June 30 will be free to negotiate and sign a contract with any NBA team. Because Yabusele played on a minimum deal and has only spent one year with the Sixers, they have limited avenues to re-sign him: their non-Bird rights will not help much, so some form of the mid-level exception very well may be required for Yabusele to be retained.
MORE: Which Sixers acquisitions will be back next year?
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