Guerschon Yabusele’s interesting offseason awaits as the Sixers look to retain him

An hour or so after the 76ers concluded their season on Sunday, Guerschon Yabusele was asked about his NBA return.

The post player was reminded that he told the media in August about wanting to prove he could play in the league.

Not only did Yabusele get the opportunity, but the Frenchman made the most of it.

The 6-foot-7, 280-pounder averaged career highs of 11 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 1.2 assists and shot a career-best 38.0% on three-pointers. As a Boston Celtic during the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons, he averaged a combined 2.3 points, 1.4 rebounds, and 0.4 assists.

“I had a lot of fun this season,” Yabusele said.

» READ MORE: Guerschon Yabusele will be coveted in free agency. He’s ‘happy and proud’ to have the Sixers as an option.

But the reality is his play will make him a sought-after unrestricted free agent this summer. So while the Sixers feel good about their chances to retain him, nothing is guaranteed until he signs the deal.

And things could get complicated in part because they don’t have Yabusele’s Bird rights after he played on a one-year, minimum salary contract for $2.1 million. The Sixers can offer him a limited salary raise, typically 120% of his previous season’s salary, unless they use a mid-level exception.

The limited raise wouldn’t be enough to retain Yabusele, given how well he performed this season. When it comes to mid-level exceptions, they’ll have options. But it could become costly.

The Sixers already have $149.1 million in guaranteed salary allocated to four players — Joel Embiid, Paul George, Tyrese Maxey and Jared McCain — next season while the projected salary cap is $154.6 million.

The Sixers’ bigger problem as they look to re-sign Yabusele is how close they sit to the first ($195.9 million) and second luxury-tax aprons ($207.8 million).

The Sixers could use their $14.1 million non-taxpayer mid-level exception to re-sign him. But that would hard-cap them at the first apron. As a result, they couldn’t exceed that threshold for the entire 2025-26 league year.

The Sixers would be hard-capped at the second apron — instead of the first — if Yabusele settled for a $5.7 million taxpayer mid-level exception.

Still, depending on how much Quentin Grimes demands in free agency, the Sixers could have a tough time keeping Grimes, Yabusele, and Kelly Oubre Jr. in addition to a top-six pick in the NBA draft in June. Oubre, who has an $8.3 million player option for next season, intends to remain a Sixer.

Under the second scenario, the Sixers could opt to trade down in the draft to lower the cap hold of their first-round pick. Or they could trade entirely out of the first round for future picks.

» READ MORE: Sixers’ Guerschon Yabusele makes the second time the charm through will and skill

We’ll have a better idea if that’s necessary following the May 12 NBA draft lottery. The Sixers (24-58) finished the season with the fifth-worst record. As a result, they have a 63.9% chance of keeping the pick, which is top-six protected.

And they’ll also have a few days to legally negotiate with their free agents, Yabusele, Grimes, and Oubre before the June 25 draft. With that, the Sixers should have a pretty good idea of what it will take to keep all three.

But …

“I don’t think you can ever be confident in an unrestricted free agent, but we feel very good,” president of basketball operations Daryl Morey said of Yabusele in February. “We love him. We freed up more with [Caleb Martin’s] contract going out [in a trade to the Dallas Mavericks]; we freed up more room for the future. So we feel very good about retaining Yabu.”

But what happens if a team offers more money than the Sixers are willing to pay or have available? Will the teamoverpay to keep Yabusele, knowing it doesn’t have financial wiggle room?

That’s not his concern.

Yabusele gambled on himself by accepting the Sixers’ minimum salary after buying out of his contract with Real Madrid Baloncesto. In addition to proving he’s an NBA player, he’s proven that he was considerably underpaid.

“I’m pretty excited, and at the same time, I’m going to take my time to really see what the options [are] going to be,” Yabusele said of free agency. “What’s the playing time going to be. This is, like, one of the main concerns. But I’m really not putting any pressure into myself. Just going there to really [try] to have some fun and really look for the solution for me.”

Playing time shouldn’t be a problem with the Sixers.

» READ MORE: Sixers’ Guerschon Yabusele makes the second time the charm through will and skill

Yabusele started in 43 of his 70 games played this season. And his versatility was often unmatched, as he excelled at both the power forward and center positions.

Yabusele stressed that playing time was important in his decision to sign with the Sixers last summer. But what are the three most important things for him in free agency even though he continues to mention playing time?

“That’s a good question,” he said with a chuckle. “I think the other teams will need to answer that for me.”