Knicks: Yabusele Trade Rumors & Potential Deals

With more than a quarter of the season already completed, the New York Knicks are second in the Eastern Conference, are the current NBA Cup champions and are on track to achieve their best record of regular season wins in more than a decade.

That does not mean, however, that from the Madison they will simply activate the autopilot and set cruising speed. There is room for something more. Or in this case, for something less.

Well, even within this positive spiral there is a screw that does not finish screwing. One that the offices, perhaps, decide to release for the February market: Guerschon Yabusele.

The French power forward was New York’s most important signing last summer, signing a two-year contract: $5.5 million this season and a $5.7 million player option for the next. On paper, a reasonable bet. Even cheap seeing how well he had performed in Philadelphia. But in practice, it fails to fit.

More economical than sporting maneuver

Yabusele has not managed to find a place in the rotation, averaging less than 10 minutes per game and with numbers unworthy of him: below 40% in field goals and a negative VORP, in addition to clear defensive difficulties. And that, with finances as tight as the Knicks’, requires action, because in their situation they cannot afford to have a completely unproductive average contract.

According to sources of The AthleticGersson Rosas and Leon Rose would not only be open to transferring him, but they would have assumed that, almost certainly, they would have to add some incentive (picks or youngsters) to be able to move his contract before the trade deadline because its market value is not too buoyant, despite the affordable nature of its payroll.

That is, Yabusele is not perceived as a “barter” piece, but rather as a problem to be solved. A – although it may not sound good – brown to remove.

Although of course, tomorrow there can always be an injury that (like in Philly, with a tremendous inner void) forces Mike Brown to look to the back of the bench. And then the Gaul went from being a problem to a blessed solution.

For now, as size alternatives to Karl-Anthony Towns, the Knicks have Mitchell Robinson, Ariel Hukporti and Trey Jemison, in addition to the aforementioned Yabusele.

(Cover photo by Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images)