By the time the 2024-25 season was about to start, Guerschon Yabusele was hoping his refined skills as a passer could be utilized in his return to the NBA after a five-year stint overseas. He had made major strides in that area, he felt, and was certain he could use his chops there to help the Sixers.
Serving as a rotational big on a team centered around Tyrese Maxey and eventually Paul George, he found himself blown away by just how valuable that ability proved to be.
A complete masterclass from Eric Gordon, Guerschon Yabusele and Kelly Oubre Jr. in how to beat teams who blitz Tyrese Maxey: pic.twitter.com/0Tjk8Qm0xO
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) January 30, 2025
“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.”
In many years past and even more seasons to come, the Sixers front office and coaching staff have worked in tandem to mold role players in fashions that will support the players at the top of the roster. In 2024-25, none of the team's stars were consistently available and meeting expectations in terms of performance. The entire pyramid crumbled as a result, with one game left in a season where the Sixers will finish as one of the five worst teams in the NBA.
Still, the Sixers believe their current makeshift roster includes players who will be critical supporting cast members on the next competitive team the organization fields, with Yabusele at the top of that list. During a season in which the team was never able to get off the ground, head coach Nick Nurse and his staff of assistants have tried to focus on skill development. The goal: giving players with chances to be important rotation pieces the necessary skills to maximize their collective ability to help an eventual star-laden Sixers team.
Yabusele has proven he can do that in all sorts of ways. Much of the discussion is immediately steered in the direction of his much-improved shooting stroke. The Sixers hoped the 29-year-old would prove to be good enough to not be ignored from beyond the arc, Yabusele has instead been a genuine floor-spacer. The Sixers signed Yabusele to help fill a hole at power forward, but the bulk of his production has ended up coming at center. His toughness and consistent availability were also impressive; if not for an extended late-season absence due to personal reasons, Yabusele would have led the team in games played this season.
Shooting aside, Yabusele has demonstrated one skill that might prove to be most valuable down the line, when the Sixers expect to build around Maxey, Joel Embiid, George, Quentin Grimes and Jared McCain: it is his passing.
“I would definitely say it's something that got better overseas," Yabusele said. "…It’s been something that I've just been getting better at year after year, for sure.”
Luckily for Yabusele and the Sixers, that specific ability is what unlocks his status as a perfect fit alongside their stars, particularly Maxey. Due to Maxey's combination of lethal speed and brilliance as a pull-up shooter, when Embiid is not on the floor Maxey often finds himself being "blitzed," meaning a defense double-teams him as he comes off a screen. It may take Maxey out of the play, but it generates an advantage for the Sixers, who have four offensive players attacking three defenders if they act quickly.
The next step, then, is ensuring Maxey's safety valve — typically the screening big — knows how to proceed with the requisite speed. Aside from having a guard of Maxey's caliber who can command such coverages, the bigs are most crucial to making this operation run smoothly.
“It comes natural because it's something that I've been doing for a couple of years now," Yabusele said. "And sometimes, too, on the court, when I see something, I’ll be like, ‘You know, when I catch it here, make sure you cut or make sure you’re at this space because I [will] be able to pass you the ball.’ Sometimes when they blitz and I receive the ball, it's just clicking. It’s something that we do in practice too, so we practice those things so now it comes so natural and easier in the game.”
Indeed, the Sixers do practice it. In fact, Nurse said it is one of the pillars of the team's work on a daily basis during the season.
“One of our daily habits that we work on is playing out of double-teams," Nurse said last month. "Because it affects both Joel and Tyrese so much that we almost start every day working on Tyrese getting blitzed, Paul George getting blitzed, Joel getting blitzed. And the first two, usually the play has to run through the big after the first [pass] — or second pass for sure, normally the first. And then they've got to make them pay. It's 4-on-3, you know, we usually want a super high-percentage attempt at the rim or a catch-and-shoot three out of those situations."
Adem Bona's increased comfort on offense has been evident as he continues to see consistent minutes. He has handled advantage situations very well when teams blitz Tyrese Maxey. pic.twitter.com/oexSruDg0b
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) January 26, 2025
Yabusele may be the Sixers' most reliable 4-on-3 decision-maker, but the Sixers see blitzes too often to only rely on one big to make quick judgments in those spots. They will continue to see those coverages moving forward, and they might see even more of them: on top of Maxey's incredible ability which is not going anywhere, the potential of McCain as a future star guard and Grimes' emergence as a dynamic three-level scorer are all compelling reasons for an opposing defense to use aggressive strategies.
Grimes was recently asked how much easier it has been for him to handle those coverages for the first time in his NBA career, knowing he can have full trust in Yabusele as a 4-on-3 passer.
"It makes it easy because if I come off a screen and they blitz and I can hit him on the short roll — and he's a high-IQ player, he can go to the rim and get fouled or he can make the right pass and kick it out to the guy on the wing for a three," Grimes said. He’s kind of like a Swiss army knife out there. He's not as big as some fives but he can bang with them and make it tough for them on the defensive end. It’s been great playing with him, honestly."
All of this means the Sixers cannot stop at just utilizing Yabusele's skill, but drilling other bigs to grow and become similarly reliable. Take, for example, Adem Bona. As the 22-year-old rookie finishes up a promising rookie season, his high-octane slams and swats have jumped out to many because of his outstanding athletic traits. But when Nurse was asked what he had made of the first handful of months of Bona's career, he singled out his passing.
"I think he's improving a little bit in his decision-making," Nurse said at the end of February. "We see a lot of blitzing and all that stuff, and he's done a pretty good job of handling that."
Adem Bona makes a good read out of a short roll, Ricky Council IV makes a wise extra pass and KJ Martin knocks down a triple: pic.twitter.com/ee1nZQXseI
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) December 1, 2024
Bona acknowledged in a conversation with PhillyVoice last month that this has been a point of emphasis during his first NBA campaign. He added that his two years at UCLA as a player who often operated with a distinct size advantage has armed him with prior experience making snap judgments as a passer.
"I think that will be a really big part of my game, because playing with Tyrese, he's probably going to get blitzed a lot," Bona said. "So being able to make decisions off the blitz, I think that's going to help me and also help the team. I've kind of seen a similar situation when I was in college, I was getting double-teamed a lot so I had to pass out of double-teams. So I think that helped me translate it into making plays out of the blitzes, so I've just got to keep developing and that's going to really help me develop my game. And to be able to share the floor with better shooters, I can find them for wide open shots."
Adem Bona has become much more comfortable as a passer in a short period of time. Meanwhile, Justin Edwards flashes terrific chops as a cutter every night at this point: pic.twitter.com/soChLA39Sf
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) January 30, 2025
There is no doubt the Sixers have plenty of work to do in order to maximize their roster after a season as disastrous as this one. This is the sort of skill that may feel like a niche right now, but if the Sixers can ever reach anything resembling full health down the line, the massive amount of work they have put into short-roll passing could pay dividends in a major way.
"It's something we work on quite a bit, it is something our development coaches spend a lot of time working with those guys on," Nurse said. "I think you can see the improvement. I think every guy that plays in that spot gets put in that situation quite often in the game. And this stuff happens fast and they've got to be able to see it. They've got to be able to execute it.”
MORE: Yabusele masters an unusual skill to help the Sixers
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