PHILADELPHIA – Guerschon Yabusele was honest when he assessed himself.
“It’s definitely not what I expected [do] The season is starting,” he said before the Knicks won 112-109 over the 76ers at Xfinity Mobile Arena. “I thought it would be something different.”
The Post previously reported that the Knicks are in active discussions to trade Yabusele before the Feb. 5 deadline. And in recent days, he’s made a few posts on X hinting at a possible departure. On Friday, he reposted a message from a French basketball account that said: “A trade and a good situation for the captain [of the French national team]that’s all we ask.”
Yabusele played three minutes on Saturday and did not score.
He doesn’t have much experience as the subject of trading reports.
“It’s nothing I can control,” Yabusele said. “Just try to be smart, prepare, [be] as ready as I can. To go out when my name is called and give it my all on the field.”
Yabusele returned Saturday to the arena where he broke out and renewed his NBA career with the 76ers last year. That rise came after a strong performance at the 2024 Summer Olympics with France, after several years playing abroad.
“Obviously my role is different from last year or at the Olympics,” Yabusele said.
Last season, he was the Knicks’ biggest free agency acquisition in two years since Donte DiVincenzo. He was supposed to be a big part of an improved bench unit, but he struggled and was largely out of coach Mike Brown’s rotation.
“When we’re healthy, it’s a little difficult,” Brown said of finding minutes for Yabusele. “Because as it is right now, our top eight guys are our starters, Mitch [Robinson]Landry [Shamet] and Deuce [McBride]. And if you take those eight guys, I have a threshold of maximum minutes in which I like to try to play against guys in the regular season. This often means I can’t even meet the minutes, because there are simply not enough minutes. Sometimes it can be difficult to involve a ninth and/or tenth man.”
Brown went out of his way to praise Ariel Hukporti, who played four key minutes in the fourth quarter with Karl-Anthony Towns and Mitchell Robinson in foul trouble.
“Ariel, he’s been back and forth with the G-League team,” Brown said. “So he’s been practicing, playing games, coming here, keeping himself ready. We threw him out there at a crucial time and he was phenomenal for us in those minutes.”
Jordan Clarkson’s fall from the rotation continued. He didn’t play on Saturday.
He played just two minutes in Monday’s loss to the Mavericks and didn’t see foul time until Wednesday’s win over the Nets.
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