The Philadelphia 76ers may be starting to come to the realization that their season might already be over even if there are 29 games still left on schedule, but licking their wounds will not help them in the slightest, that’s for sure.
Following yet another embarrassinig loss to the visiting Toronto Raptors, the 76ers are now a season-worst 13 games below .500. While still somehow withi striking distance to at least qualify for the play-in tournament, given how they are playing, it is extremely unlikely that they will be able to play more games in late April and onto the succeeding ones.
In effect, it could be more productive for the front office to start looking forward to the next season and commence efforts to probe into the options that could be available for them during the coming summer. Last year, the 76ers turned in a largesse in free agency, but this time around, they will have to get more creative to improve the roster and help them forget about this very forgettable campaign.
The 76ers are confident about their chances of re-signing Guerschon Yabusele
One of the biggest priorities for Philadelphia when the offseason starts is keeping Guerschon Yabusele on the roster. In his comeback season in the NBA after a lengthy stint in Europe — and highlighted by a breakout stint for Les Bleus France during the 2024 Summer Olympics that led to the 76ers signing him — he has been thoroughly impressive and should be a mainstay in the league moving forward.
However, entering the season and in the thick of Yabusele’s breakout, there were serious concerns about the team’s ability to keep him in the fold beyond this campaign. With the 76ers having signed him to a minimum deal, their cap situation severely limited them in offering big bucks to lure him to remain with the franchise, making the thought of trading him actually reasonable.
But thanks to Daryl Morey and the front office’s manuevering before the trade deadline where they made a couple of salary-dumping moves, the door is now wide open for them to re-sign the Frenchman. And it seems like the 76ers brass is pretty confident about retaining his services for next season and possibly beyond.
“I don’t think you can ever be confident in an unrestricted free agent, but we feel very good. We love him [Yabusele]. We just freed up more with [Caleb Martin’s] contract going out; we freed up more room for the future. So we feel very good about retaining Yabu.
Quite frankly, no player on the roster has been more consistent than Yabusele, who has also emerged as perhaps their most versatile player. While primarily a power forward, he has embraced his role as a small-ball center, capably banging inside against much bigger foes and punishing them with his agility as a roll man and his wildly efficient three-point stroke.
The Philadelphia 76ers will most likely prefer to pretend like this season never happened, but for what it’s worth — well, a ton — at least they saw the re-emergence of Guerschon Yabusele, who is poised to be a keeper for the franchise after initially looking like a one-year rental.