The Philadelphia 76ers tried to generate as much elbow room as possible to usher in the then-impending free agency of Quentin Grimes, but in doing so, they made a foolish decision that will most definitely age terribly moving forward.
Not long after free agency started, 76ers fans suddenly got wind of Guerschon Yabusele exiting the team to join one of their biggest rivals, the New York Knicks. As it turns out, the 76ers front office never really tried to mount a real offer to the Frenchman, extending him an offer nearly equal to the veteran’s minimum.
In short, Daryl Morey and his cohorts lowballed him hard. At that time, it was perceived to be a choice made in preparation for a possibly lucrative offer to Grimes. But as everyone knows, that turned out to be an exercise in futility. Grimes and the 76ers had a pretty lengthy push-and-pull that lasted for months, ending with the glib culmination of him only taking the qualifying offer.
That is one big miscalculation which will definitely be a source of regret for the 76ers this season. Count on it.
The 76ers will seriously regret letting Guerschon Yabusele walk away for nothing
The power forward position remains a dicey one for Philly heading into the regular season. Sure, the roster has more options in that regard compared to the last year, but none of their possible choices project to amount to the kind of production the Frenchman put up in his first season with the franchise.
Yabusele was easily the team’s most versatile player last season, playing all frontcourt positions and functioning in a multitude of ways. He was competent on both ends thanks to his unique mix of post scoring, perimeter shooting, on-court awareness, and defensive tenacity, which makes it all the more perplexing that the front office just decided to put a governor on his otherwise productive stint.
Meanwhile, Grimes is most probably going to end up being a one-year rental for the 76ers. Philadelphia’s core decision-makers seem to not think of him as highly as fans do, and given his rich demands, his representation will certainly do whatever it takes to net him the handsome pay raise has has been earnestly looking for.
The Philadelphia 76ers committed a grave mistake in letting Yabusele go — plain and simple. After all, he was one of the only real fixes to a perennial issue of theirs, yet decided to let him go just to save some costs which did not end up mattering in the end.