July 01, 2025
Guerschon Yabusele has departed Philadelphia, reportedly agreeing to a two-year, $11.6 million contract with the New York Knicks on Tuesday morning.
If that figure sounds familiar, it is because those are the numbers of the taxpayer's mid-level exception, which the Sixers indeed have at their disposal to sign free agents. So, if Yabusele's market was not going to rise above the tax MLE all along, why is he not still on the Sixers?
A source with knowledge of the team's thinking indicated there was an aversion to making any moves which cause hard caps before the restricted free agency of Quentin Grimes had been resolved. Retaining Grimes is rightfully the team's top priority this summer, and using the tax MLE would prevent the Sixers from surpassing the league's second apron under any circumstances. If Grimes inked an offer sheet that would take the Sixers over that threshold, they would be unable to match the deal.
There is a lot to unpack here. This is a good starting point: the Sixers are correct that using the tax MLE before re-signing Grimes could theoretically jeopardize their ability to retain the 25-year-old if he was presented with a significant offer sheet. The issue, however, is that such an event does not seem feasible right now.
If the Sixers had signed Yabusele to the same contract that New York did, my own salary cap projections indicate they would be able to afford paying Grimes up to approximately $18.5 million in the first year of any contract he signed while building a 14-man roster. That figure could have increased by nearly $3 million if the team dumped Andre Drummond's $5 million expiring salary (they would have had to replace Drummond with a player on veteran's minimum deal to get to the minimum 14 players).
So, is Grimes commanding something beyond that number realistic? If so, it would come from the Brooklyn Nets, the only team in the NBA currently operating with cap space. Brooklyn has about $17 million in space right now, but could waive a collection of players on non-guaranteed contracts to get up to $25 million. The Nets have appeared focused on collecting draft picks in exchange for unwanted salary rather than being aggressive in free agency, but they do have the theoretical capacity to design a front-loaded offer that the Sixers would not be able to match without dumping Drummond and Kelly Oubre Jr., whose $8.3 million expiring salary may be an asset.
Whether or not Brooklyn has genuine interest in Grimes remains unclear, as nobody has been able to definitively quantify how much they like him. But with the Detroit Pistons likely operating as an over-the-cap team, the Nets are the lone threat on Grimes -- and apparently the Sixers have enough anxiousness about Grimes' market that it prevented them from feeling comfortable re-signing Yabusele and incurring that hard cap.
It is also worth noting that the Sixers drew plenty of interest in Yabusele at the trade deadline last season, and instead of dealing him to a contender held onto him in hopes of coming to terms on a new deal. They could not have expected Grimes to emerge in the way that he did, and the team having a $11 million rookie salary on their books in 2025-26 was also previously unforeseen. But any team built around three players on max contracts like the Sixers must factor into its calculus that it is constantly at risk of reaching these challenging salary cap situations that complicate even simple matters like signing Yabusele at a relatively low number.
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