The New York Knicks Hit A Home Run With This Offseason Move

I know it has been nearly a month since it happened, but I still cannot stop thinking about how great an addition it was for the New York Knicks to sign Guerschon Yabusele.

We’ll get to the specifics in just a moment. But here is the short of it: he addresses one of their most pressing issues, helps bolster a strategy that worked well for them last postseason, and came to them at an absolute bargain compared to his actual production.

Yabusele Gives The Knicks Bench Some Much Needed Depth

While it turned out that their bench wasn’t as terrible as Tom Thibodeau’s Machiavellian treatment of the starters would suggest, they still didn’t have much bite once the starters left the floor.

Last season, the Knicks ranked dead-last in bench points per game, and based on the chart below, it wasn’t even close:

Yabusele will step in and immediately become their bullpen’s best reliever. According to Estimated Plus-Minus (arguably the best one-number metric on the market because it incorporates tracking data), Yabusele placed in the 84th percentile in the entire league on the offensive side of the ball (per Dunks & Threes). That ranks higher than any non-starter from last year’s Knicks team. Heck, that ranks higher than everyone not named Jalen Brunson or Karl-Anthony Towns.

Yabusele Lets The Knicks Play More Double Big Lineups

One of the biggest leaguewide storylines from last season was the re-emergence of double big lineups. All across the league, teams were having success with two titans in the frontcourt.

The Knicks were not immune to this trend, as they posted a net rating of +8.3 in the 165 minutes that Towns and Mitchell Robinson shared the floor (per PBP Stats).

For those who aren’t hyper familiar with Yabusele’s game, he is like the Diet Coke version of Towns. He’s a big man who can hit triples (38%), put the ball on the floor (97th percentile true shooting on drives, per NBA.com), and offer some playmaking/passing (52nd percentile Passer Rating).

Even a lesser version of this player archetype is incredibly valuable because it allows your team to go double big alongside a traditional center (i.e., Robinson) without sacrificing floor spacing.

Yabusele gives the Knicks another key to unlocking their best lineup. Now, the Knicks have more lineup versatility/flexibility in the event that one of Towns/Robinson is injured or gets into foul trouble.

Yabusele’s Contract Is A Steal For The Knicks

Yabusele signed with the Knicks for a little less than the full taxpayer mid-level exception. To be exact, his average annual value (AAV) over the next two years will be 5.6 million dollars (per Spotrac).

However, based on my formula for estimating production value, if Yabusele can emulate his numbers from 2024-25, he will be worth roughly 14.1 million dollars in 2025-26. That difference of 8.5 million dollars makes him one of the five best value signings of the offseason thus far (to see the rest of those contracts, be sure to check out this link here).

With most of their assets tied up in their formidable starting five, the Knicks faced a nearly impossible mission: trying to improve a bench with limited resources to do so.

To be fair, the job still isn’t finished (insert Kobe Bryant snippet). The Knicks could use one more two-way wing to complete their ten-man rotation (they would do well to re-sign Landry Shamet or sign Amir Coffey).

But if this does end up being it for them, the Knicks did a great job adding a perfect-fitting piece to a team that came two wins away from the NBA Finals.