Guerschon Yabusele has yet to even play a single second for the New York Knicks, and already he’s leaving money on the table to help the team maximize its chances of landing someone else who can crack the rotation.
Initial reporting had the 29-year-old heading to the Big Apple on a two-year, $11.7 million deal that would pay him around $5.7 million in 2025-26—the full taxpayer mini mid-level exception. Left alone, this is fine value for a combo big with a deeper-than-advertised offensive arsenal, and who opens up all sorts of lineup possibilities.
Related: That agreement isn’t being left alone. Yabusele is further endearing himself to the team, and signing for slightly less, according to Stefan Bondy of the New York Post. The exact value of his contract remains unconfirmed, but he’s apparently taking enough of a haircut to let the Knicks be more aggressive on the free-agency market.
Guerschon Yabusele’s contract is expected to land a little less than the full $5.7 million midlevel exception next season, The Post has learned, providing the Knicks enough cap space to sign another player on a veteran minimum contract. Helping out his new team.
— Stefan Bondy (@SbondyNBA) July 5, 2025
And yes, that is a potentially huge deal.
Every dollar counts for the Knicks
Using any portion of the mini MLE to sign Yabusele hard caps the Knicks at the second apron. They can’t go over it. Not even for a minimum contract. All of their business must fit underneath that threshold.
Paying Yabusele the entire thing leaves New York around $3.5 million below the second apron, with two mandatory roster spots to fill out. That’s just enough wiggle room to sign players with little to no NBA experience, but it takes the Knicks out of the running for more impactful vets who fall through the free-agency cracks, accept buyouts and are willing to sign with a contender, or just take a pay cut to try rehabilitating their market value before next summer.
Though minimum salaries vary by years spent in the NBA, the league offsets values for older players to incentivize squads to pay them. So, for the Knicks’ purposes, here is how much every possible experience tier would count towards their second apron total:
- Player with zero years experience: $1.3 million
- Players with one year experience: $2.1 million
- Players with two or more years experience: $2.3 million
You will notice that if left untouched, New York’s books have no way of fitting a more experienced veteran while skirting the second apron. There are ways the Knicks can game it so that they sign someone later in the season, as expertly outlined by Knicks Film School’s Jonathan Macri, but they’d be shopping among a thinner pool of options at that point.
This is where Yabusele taking less comes up big-time. He’s going to sign for an amount that would permit New York to add a vet who may actually play, and then likely sign someone like Mohamed Diawara or James Nnaji to a rookie minimum. (For the true sickos out there: Kevin McCullar Jr. falls under the one-year experience tier, and would cost the Knicks an additional $800,00 compared to the rookie minimum. He doesn’t fit this plan unless Yabu is taking, like, $1 million less than the mini MLE next year.)
The Knicks can turn this added flexibility into someone meaningful
Opening up a veteran’s minimum contract slot isn’t something that’s going to define the Knicks’ offseason. But it significantly increases the odds they add an actual rotation player—or even stumble into a ridiculous bargain.
Maybe Al Horford is that desperate to play for a contender, and doesn’t want to leave the Northeast. Perhaps Chris Boucher is no longer part of the Toronto Raptors’ plans, and open to joining the party at the minimum. This could be enough to sway De’Anthony Melton, or Amir Coffey. Landry Shamet could come back. This could be the way they're able to take a flier on Ben Simmons.
Yabusele is also giving the Knicks a chance to stay in the hunt for offseason buyout candidates. They could technically sign Bradley Beal if and when he negotiates his exit from the Phoenix Suns, provided he’s not looking to recoup the money he gives back, Kevin Huerter could push for a buyout from the Chicago Bulls. Maybe Royce O’Neale gets bought out if he’s shipped out of Phoenix.
The list of options is neither endless nor guaranteed. But the Knicks aren’t going into this expecting to hit a home run. They are trying to maximize the value of their 13th roster spot within the boundaries of what’s financially feasible.
They couldn’t do that before. Yabusele is helping them do it now.