Guerschon Yabusele as a small-ball five looks to be a real consideration

The late-summer free agency signing could fill what has long been a vacant role for the Sixers.

Even before Monday night, Guerschon Yabusele was one of the bigger wildcards of the offseason roster revamping for the Philadelphia 76ers. Following an excellent Olympics campaign with France, the former first-round pick would be returning to the NBA for the first time since the 2018-19 season with the Boston Celtics. You could realistically imagine Yabusele doing anything from being a regular DNP-CD candidate with everyone healthy, to making an Kelly Oubre, Jr.-like rise up the rotation and becoming a sixth man, closing lineup candidate. That’s a much wider range of outcomes than the usual player signed in late August.

Monday’s preseason opener over the New Zealand Breakers only added to the intrigue surrounding Yabusele. With the obvious caveats that it was an exhibition contest against a non-NBA opponent, it’s hard to find fault in The Dancing Bear’s 6-for-6 line from the field, including one three-pointer, for a team-high-tying 15 points. What especially piqued many Sixers fans’ interest, though, was Nick Nurse opting to use Yabusele as a backup five option with Joel Embiid getting the night off. A small-ball five has been something discussed around Sixers discourse for quite some time where the team has never quite been able to find a suitable candidate. The 6-foot-8 Yabusele is burly enough to tussle with many big men, and having improved his outside shot the last couple years with Real Madrid, might be able to fit the bill.

Following Philadelphia’s 139-84 win over the Breakers, head coach Nick Nurse discussed his comfort level with Yabusele at the backup five spot:

“I thought he got himself into some really good places tonight. When they switched, he took ‘em right in there. He’s pretty used to that. That’s kind of the style they used him at with France and overseas. When they switch a smaller guy, he’s pretty wide to get around as well, so he can go down there, post and score. Let’s not get carried away; there’ll probably be some bigger bodies coming up, so let’s see how he fares. But he made a couple of good moves — faced up, got to the front of the rim, shot. And then hitting the glass, rebounding. Can he take care of the defensive rebounding? Can he pick-and-pop once in a while? … He did all of (that) tonight. Good first outing for him.”

Nurse was asked to follow up on the idea of having switchable wings enabling him to play with Yabusele as a small-ball center and had this to say:

“Yeah, I think so. We have the wings and we can do that. The biggest concern is always, can you take care of the defensive glass? But I do think Caleb’s a kind of fly-in rebounder. You saw Kelly fly in and grab a couple. We’re really working with Kelly on that. Ricky has to up his defensive rebounding rate as well. That’s probably the biggest concern, but I feel like yeah, we can do a lot of stuff out there. We did a lot of stuff tonight. We played some straight up; we did a lot of switching; we did late switching, we did early switching. We were doing a bunch of stuff tonight, and they made their share of mistakes on the back side of it. But for the most part, it was pretty good. They were talking. This team seems a lot more communicative than I ever remember us being last year, which is good.”

During his postgame availability, Yabusele was asked how much he’d played at center during training camp, and it seems like it’s definitely something the team has in mind for him:

“I did work a lot at the five, so I wasn’t surprised. Especially with Joel not being (in), that’s something I was expecting and they told me that before. But I’ve been doing both. Sometimes I was also on the court with Drum. I think it’s interesting work for me to figure out the the two roles. I think I have to be ready to play at the five during the season.”

Yabusele doesn’t feel like much changes for him in terms of mentality approaching each position:

“The mentality on court, I think it’s the same. It’s just playing … it’s a little different. Of course on defense, I have to be a little bit more active and have to be able to help the guys. At the four, I think it’s easier for me because I’m able to switch positions with the other guys and just pass (off) the offensive player. It’s just two different types of defense. As far as the offense, I’m going to try to space out a little bit more on the court (when playing center) to make the other five get out of the paint and make him work.”

One of the nice partnerships we saw during the game was between Yabusele and returning free agent signing Kyle Lowry, who connected on a few plays, including this bucket in the first quarter:

Yabusele spoke to developing a good pick-and-roll connection with Lowry, who he’ll likely often be playing together with as part of the second unit:

“For sure. He’s a great piece on our team. He’s been around a long time. He’s a great passer and he understands things a lot more than the other guys. So when he talks, we listen. After (my) first basket, he was telling me to always roll and he was going to find me. We kind of created that connection today and I know that’s something we can look for during the season.”

Again, we’ll want to see a larger sample size against actual NBA competition, but early returns on the Yabusele signing look good. If he can indeed provide Nick Nurse with a small-ball five option, that’s another interesting tool at the head coach’s disposal. Ultimately, the French summer star is one more fascinating piece in what looks to be a deep, flexible roster Daryl Morey has put together heading into the 2024-25 season.