Guerschon Yabusele‘s first season with the Knicks hasn’t gone the way either side envisioned after the team signed the veteran big man to a two-year, $11.25MM contract over the summer.
After averaging 11.0 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.1 assists on .501/.380/.725 shooting in 70 games (27.1 minutes per contest) with Philadelphia last season, Yabusele’s numbers have dropped considerably in 2025/26. He’s averaging just 3.0 PPG and 2.2 RPG in 24 appearances (9.8 MPG), with a shooting slash line of .400/.295/.600; more than half of his field goal attempts have been threes.
Prior to Saturday’s NBA Cup semifinal against Orlando, Yabusele admitted to a level of frustration with his limited role in a French interview with AFP and Basket USA (story via Ouest-France; hat tip to Nikola Miloradovic of Eurohoops).
“I don’t want to lie to you, it’s very difficult,” Yabusele said. “I’m a competitor first. It’s not a situation I thought (I would be in) coming here.”
Yabusele, who turns 30 years old on Wednesday, played in Europe for several years after a two-season stint with Boston early in his career. He says he’s staying positive despite the difficult circumstances, and credits the Knicks’ supportive locker room for helping him remain upbeat.
“I try to be ready whenever my name is called,” Yabusele said. “I try to control my impact on the court, no matter how much time I get.“
Coming from a Partizan Belgrade fun, he’s a punk
He’s not fit to play in a Mike Brown offence. Also, I feel like last year was the “contract year uptick” season for him.
Oops he got caught being honest.
System or not, he needs to perform. Others are just as equally new to it as he is. Perhaps a trade of underperforming players could be a solution.
He’s been a disappointment trade him in a package for Donte to bring him back. I expected more from him
Jalen Smith for Yabusele? Does that work for both teams? We need more rebounding and interior defense, and they get more shooting with KAT on the bench.
I’m more than fine with that
I’ll take that. He definitely will give us more motion. And yes I believe he can play with Towns.
The way he played in the Euros. He was scoring and shooting well. I thought he would be an upgrade over Precious. Now I wish we had Precious.
Don’t really know if there is a trade out there for him. Rudy and Wemby know his game. I doubt their teams want him. Sixers might want him back. I would love to get Broome back in a trade.
Looks like Landry is not coming back. So Knicks really do need to adjust their bench. We gotta do something lols.
He’s such a whiner.
It was a big swing and miss by the FO to bring GY in with the Txp-MLE. Best case is that another team wants him, and is willing to take the contract into a TPE or cap space without sending anything back. We could probably sign 2 guys with the money that would free up under the hard cap.