Sixers Expected To Sign France Standout Guerschon Yabusele

The Philadelphia 76ers are nearing a deal to land more veteran help, and this one comes all the way from France.

Actually, Guerschon Yabusele does have NBA experience, and he is currently nearing a deal with the Sixers, per Shams Charania of The Athletic.

Yabusele, 28, has to finalize a $2.5 million contract buyout with Spanish club Real Madrid before he can make an NBA return, Charania added.

Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN later reported that Yabusele agreed to a one-year, $2.1 million deal with Philadelphia.

He played 74 games for the Boston Celtics from 2017-18 to 2018-19 — and recently made it pretty clear that he wants to play in the NBA again. Of course, Yabusele also played for the French national team, which lost to Team USA in the gold medal game at the Paris Olympics.

A 6-foot-8 power forward, Yabusele carries NBA career averages of 2.3 points and 1.4 rebounds in 74 total games over two seasons, all with the Celtics.

Philadelphia has already landed forward Paul George and Caleb Martin this offseason, along with center Andre Drummond and guards Eric Gordon and Reggie Jackson. Yabusele would likely serve as a high-energy and physical big man in reserve.

As an interesting aside, John Hollinger of The Athletic recently reported that a return to the NBA for Yabusele seemed iffy.

“Yabusele’s shooting has improved markedly and he’s slimmed down a bit since Boston, both of which make him a more attractive proposition as a stretch four than he was as a Celtic,” Hollinger wrote. “His defensive awareness was never a strength, but he’s fairly switchable along the perimeter if he’s in shape. Offensively, he’s hit 44.5 percent, 36.1 percent and 40.2 percent from 3 the last three seasons while playing at the highest levels of European basketball and obviously can hammer a mismatch on the block against switches.”