Draymond Verte? Guerschon ‘small-ball five’ Yabusele a welcome revelation for 76ers

Interior passing? Switchability?! Smart positioning!! The Dancing Bear has got moves the Sixers haven’t seen for a while.

Philadelphia was down four points when Guerschon Yabusele walked onto Indiana’s Gainbridge Fieldhouse court. He set a screen on the Pacers’ T.J. McConnell before hustling to set another on Bennedict Mathurin. Kelly Oubre Jr. missed the resulting layup but Yabusele grabbed the board over McConnell and kicked it back out to Tyrese Maxey who swung to Eric Gordon for a three.

Those were the first of 12 second-chance points from Yabusele’s rebounding. Four of his five offensive boards led to threes as the team won in overtime to avoid three straight losses to start the season. For a 76ers team that’s dead last in three-point percentage, second to last in effective field goal percentage, and nearly last in offensive rating, those shots were important.

As is Yabusele. The 28-year-old Frenchman has been a compelling side attraction in the circus of the early Sixers’ season. At 6-foot-8 265 pounds, he’s chased the ball to every corner of every court, set and maneuvered screens, and displayed a malleable skillset with the team’s greatest asset, Joel Embiid.

Though his ‘Dancing Bear’ moniker doesn’t scream intelligence, Yabusele is a smart basketballer. He knows just where to position himself to end possessions with a bucket. This is important as he lacks the size and athleticism to consistently finish over bigger defenders.

He stayed in the perfect spot for an and-one make against the Raptors, just out of reach of the defender but still within a one-step and leap of the rim. In the same game, he stayed patient after rolling to get an easy layup from Gordon’s drive. His first bucket of the year was a similar play to the and-one, except he spaced himself out to the three as Brook Lopez was positioned to cut off a rim run. The same goes for his two threes against Detroit. Those are all similar actions where he made different decisions each time. All correct. Being a salient off-ball player is vital when playing with Joel Embiid, especially when you’re the other big.

But Yabusele’s acute awareness of where all players are on the court also means he can extend the possession once he has the ball. That’s often just a simple swing pass to the open shooter. But he’s also shown an intriguing interior passing game that could greatly complement Embiid. Here he makes the right read to pass it to Drummond for the dunk opportunity (who is called for an offensive foul after review), and against Toronto he snuck a pass by three Raptors to Kelly Oubre Jr. for the and-one.

Because of this decision-making, he has real potential as a playmaker out of pick-and-rolls, especially as the sole big. KJ Martin had a rim-shaking dunk against Indiana thanks to Yabusele making an easy bounce pass rolling off a set screen. However, his eyes can be bigger than his paws. This pass to Martin going backdoor is a phenomenal idea but it goes right into Chris Boucher’s palm. Even straightforward passes by Yabusele have landed at his teammate’s feet or his opponent’s hands, and some of his dribble handoffs are far too sluggish.

For the team to truly rely on him as a quasi-Draymond Green (Draymond Verte, if I may, especially with a fake hand-off like this) playmaking small-ball five, that pass accuracy and laziness will need to improve. But the vision is there. And the defensive principles are saying ‘bonjour’ too.

His positioning in handoffs and screening actions is nearly perfect, guarding two players at once. Occasionally a bounce pass sneaks under his arms or a fingertip beyond his reach. But he stays relevant enough for long enough in the possession to negate the offense.

He forces indecision or bad shots from guards by staying in front of them and cutting off angles in the pick-and-roll. Watch him shut down Tyrese Haliburton’s drive and the subsequent three-point attempt. Look at those feet go!

His second-half defense against Detroit illustrated his defensive knack. He jumped out for a hard blitz on Cade Cunningham, he stayed tight on Isaiah Stewart, disrupting Detroit’s semi-oop attempt, his quick hands led to an electrifying KJ Martin alley-oop, and he blew up a pick-and-roll all by himself. Throw a drawn charge in there and a couple more deflections and he has an argument for more minutes as a small-ball five.

However, when players have built momentum downhill, Yabusele is about as useful as belts for animated bears (why don’t Winnie the Pooh or Yogi Bear wear pants?). Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo went by him, as did Mathurin and even… Jakob Pöltl. He needs to prepare for pace better, and will likely never be a rim protector for the same reasons he’ll never be a serious rim-finishing threat. Luckily there’s a guy called Embiid who’s pretty good at cleaning up on defense.

If he’s not walling up and is uninvolved, he tends to get involved to a compromising extent. Here he gambles and gives up a wide-open layup. And here he is already guarding no one but doubles Bobby Portis who throws one of the worst passes ever to a wide-open-cutting Pat Connaughton. Maybe there is a blessing bestowed upon Yabusele as both these possessions led to crazy offensive mistakes, but I’m sure the 76ers would rather not trust luck to be on their side.

No other big on the roster can move their feet like the Dancing Bear. Thinking ahead to the big dance, as is The Plan, his ability to switch out onto the perimeter will prove valuable for whatever playoff minutes he’s on the floor. As well as Drummond has played, playing him against the Celtics or Knicks seems pointless. He can’t keep up with the salsa-footed perimeter players whose offensive possessions will decide the series.

Whenever Embiid returns, Yabusele’s play with the MVP will be a big factor for lineups deep in the postseason. He has shown flashes of capitalizing on a rotating or broken defense and no one causes those like Embiid. But he can hold his own as the lone-big on both ends.

Yabusele’s path to keeping his rotation spot is simple: Keep on dancing and keep people distracted, at the least. If he maintains his play and corrects those easy mistakes, he’s a bright spot for a potentially tumultuous regular season.