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Daryl Morey is Being Proven Right on his Guerschon Yabusele Gamble
By Sean Barnard
Published:
Guerschon Yabusele was just about the lone bright spot in an otherwise disastrous 2024-25 season for the Sixers. The Olympic standout was handed a one-year prove-it deal following his performance with Team France. After falling out of favor in the NBA following the 2018-19 season with the Boston Celtics, this was a welcomed second chance for the former 16th overall pick at a position of need.
Yabusele exceeded all reasonable expectations with the Sixers, looking like the team’s best player across some of their injury-ridden stretches. The now-30-year-old suited up for 70 games for the Sixers, starting 43 of them. Across his 27.1 minutes per contest, Yabusele averaged 11.0 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 2.0 assists, while shooting 38% from beyond the three-point arc.
The Sixers found themselves in a difficult spot this offseason with Quentin Grimes’ restricted free agency preventing them from being very active in making other moves. Daryl Morey and the front office made the proper decision to prioritize retaining Grimes, and risk Yabusele receiving a more notable contract elsewhere. This ultimately came to fruition, as the New York Knicks signed the Frenchman to a two-year, $12 million deal with the second season as a player option. Yabusele also seemingly took a bit of offense to the negotiations with the Sixers’ front office:
Yabusele’s Role on the Knicks
It has been far from a seamless fit for Yabusele on the Knicks. Despite the expectation that he would be a high-impact role player, he has played himself nearly out of the rotation completely. The 6-foot-7 forward is playing just 9.6 minutes per game and averaging 3.0 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 0.4 assists. He’s shooting just 39.4% from the floor overall and 30.4% from beyond the three-point arc.
There is some element of truth to his benefitting from him looking better by comparison on a 24-58 Sixers team last year that featured a revolving door of fringe NBA players. But everything has looked more difficult for Yabusele up in New York. Knicks fans have also been quite critical of his weight and unique body shape.
To be fair to him, Yabusele has played a ton of basketball over the past two years. After playing a full season for Real Madrid in the 2023-24 season, he then logged heavy minutes in the Olympics and parlayed this into an NBA opportunity. Yabusele saw a more significant workload on the Sixers than he or the team likely expected, and then participated in Eurobasket for Team France this summer before returning to the NBA grind with the Knicks. There is a world where he finds his legs and settles in later on in the season, but there is no way to sugarcoat he has significantly underwhelmed to this point.
Sixers Power Forward Outlook
With salary cap restrictions keeping the Sixers fairly limited, they were forced to get creative to fix the power forward problem that Yabusele’s absence provided. Their first move was to sign Trendon Watford to a two-year contract worth $5.3 million, with the second season as a team option. Watford has been limited to just 14 games so far this season due to injuries, and currently remains sidelined with an adductor strain. When he has been on the floor, Watford is averaging 8.9 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 3.6 assists across his 20.4 minutes of action. The injury issues have prevented him from finding his full stride, but the flashes have been there, such as notching a triple-double in his first start:
Where Daryl Morey especially deserves credit is for maximizing the two-way slots. Every NBA team has three two-way slots for players to spend time on the G League roster and hold 50 games of NBA eligibility. To be eligible, players must have fewer than four years of NBA experience and cannot play in the postseason.
Most teams typically use these spots for young players they want on to keep on their developmental track that aren’t quite ready for a full NBA role. The Sixers have zagged a bit from this thought-process, prioritizing players with legitimate NBA experience on the backend of this four-year window of eligibility.
Morey added a pair of power forwards on two-way slots who have each proven incredibly important to this Sixers team. Jabari Walker was the first signing after he spent the past three seasons of his career with the Portland Trail Blazers. There was some vocal surprise in NBA circles that Walker was not able to find a standard contract somewhere, considering he started 23 games for Portland in the 2022-23 season and has shown notable flashes throughout his young career. The 23-year-old has suited up for 26 games with the Sixers, including five starts, and is posting averages of 4.5 points and 3.6 rebounds across his 14.0. minutes per game. Walker is a pugnacious rebounder who won’t back down to anyone and shows some flashes of a perimeter shot. The ceiling is not particularly high for what he can grow into, but there is a clear pathway to him being a valuable rotation player in the NBA for the next decade.
The true prize of the two-way pool has been Dominick Barlow. After going undrafted and seeing limited chances in the first two years of his career with the Spurs and last year with the Hawks, Barlow has made the most of his extended opportunity in Philadelphia. He was a part of the opening night starting lineup for the Sixers and has started 15 of the 18 games he has been active for. Across his 26.6 minutes per game, Barlow is averaging 9.1 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 1.8 assists. Beyond the raw counting stats, he has shown an advanced basketball savvy for his age. The 6-foot-9 forward is a springy athlete who is constantly searching for how to create advantages for the team by setting off ball screens, making the right connective pass, and relentlessly attack the offensive glass. His ability to rebound at a high level and serve as a rim protector has been increasingly valuable when sharing the floor with Joel Embiid.
The Sixers also elected to enter the season with an open roster spot for additional flexibility. This granted an opportunity for the organization to evaluate these two-way players and see if any are ready to be upgraded to a standard deal. It is still fairly early in the season, but it feels it is a question of when, not if, Barlow gets upgraded to a standard contract. He has become the consistent starting power forward and will be necessary in any sort of postseason setting. By playing their cards this way, the Sixers do have a chance to ink Barlow to a team-friendly multi-year deal in a similar way to what was done with Justin Edwards last year.
There was plenty of criticism for the Sixers’ inability to retain Guerschon Yabusele this offseason. But finding three power forward options who have each played better than him this season and make less combined than Yabusele is on the books for this season should earn Daryl Morey some praise. There is still plenty of basketball to be played, but power forward has been a weakness for this Sixers team for most of the Embiid era, and it has been the opposite this year.
The top-dollar players will make or break the outlook for this season. But Daryl Morey continues to make significant wins in the margins, and this is something that will pay dividends for this Sixers franchise for years to come.
Sean Barnard has covered the Philadelphia 76ers and general Philly Sports for over six years in a variety of roles and for multiple outlets. Currently works as a Content Writer for DraftKings Network, Sixers/NBA Insider for Philadelphia's Fox Sports the Gambler, and co-host of Sixers & Phillies Digest on Youtube. Forever Trusting the Process.