The Philadelphia 76ers have made a couple of sleek signings in free agency to kick off their foray into the open market, but given the departure of a critical role player and the front office’s current deadlock with their biggest priority free agent this summer, it would be difficult to pencil them in as winners so far this offseason.
Of course, we’re talking about the departure of Guerschon Yabusele and the impasse the front office has reached with Quentin Grimes. The 76ers have their full focus on the latter, but it is quite hard to stomach the events and circumstances that led to the former leaving the franchise to head to a major rival in the New York Knicks.
Adding Trendon Watford and Jabari Walker helps mitigate the loss of Yabusele, but there is a world out there where all of those players coexist on the 76ers roster. There has been mixed opinions about the Frenchman’s decision to go to the Big Apple, but as it turns out, he may not have been given a choice to return to the 76ers to begin with.
At the very least, Philly’s brass should take a bigger slice of the pie blame — plain and simple.
The 76ers reportedly gave Guerschon Yabusele a disrespectful offer
According to Knicks reporter Stefan Bondy from the New York Post, the 76ers ultimately lowballed Yabusele in free agency, revealing that the offer tendered to the erstwhile free agent was merely $2.6 million — an amount which basically equates to the veteran’s minimum.
There is a degree of guesswork in how Bondy revealed the detail, but nevertheless, its gist falls squarely within what Yabusele had revealed just recently in an interview when asked why he bypassed and left the 76ers.
Daryl Morey and his crew are under a clear win-now edict, and this decision — this disrespectful decision — runs afoul of that missive. Sure, he may not be the team’s general manager, but there is no doubt that as team president, all things planned by Elton Brand has to go through the longtime executive.
Yabusele was a vital piece for the team last season who projects as someone who could be entrenched as Joel Embiid’s running mate in the frontcourt. And after the kind of season he turned in for the team, treating him this poorly is definitely more than sufficient to compel him to had elsewhere — and to a major rival, at that.
Will Yabusele leaving the 76ers be their death knell? Probably and most likely no. But did Morey and the 76ers front office show that they are serious about giving this team the best chance to contende next season? Also a hard no.
We have to call a spade a spade. Heck, this is not only a wrong decision, but a blatantly disrespectful one.