The New York Knicks' biggest offseason addition was Mike Brown, proven by the team's running start to his tenure. Their biggest on-court financial committment, though, was to Guerschon Yabusele. Neither the Knicks nor Yabusele have seemingly been pleased with how things have started, with Brown including him in the rotation sporadically and the Frenchman telling media his lack of a role was "difficult." Any teams potentially interested in buying low on Yabusele will take notice of his 3-point success on Monday night, shooting 3-of-4 from downtown in the win over the Pelicans.
Yabusele seizes opportunity to get on track
The Knicks got Deuce McBride back for Monday night's game, a welcome health-related development. They did sit Mitchell Robinson out for load management, common on back-to-backs . Even then, Brown played 12 different players against the Pelicans.
Trey Jemison III likely only played because center Ariel Hukporti suffered a mouth laceration, but going 11-deep would still have been more than usual. Besides Hukporti, though, no Knick reserve entered the game before Yabusele. After four straight DNP-CDs, the "dancing bear" was back in the mix.
Yabusele got 16 total minutes of run over the course of the game, which New York lost by six points. He scored nine points, pulled down two rebounds, and assisted on one score in that time. He did turn the ball over twice and commit just as many fouls, but the efficiency on which he was scoring the ball helped make up for it. His points came on 3-of-5 field goal shooting, which included him making three of the four 3-pointers he took.
The total is the third-highest of Yabusele's time in New York thus far; he's reached his season-high of 11 twice, against the Wizards and Jazz. While all three high-scoring performances have come against inferior opponents, that might be as much about when the big man gets opportunities as it is the caliber of defenses that he scores most against.
It doesn't seem like a consistent role for Yabusele is going to open up in the Knicks' rotation. At least not any time soon, or without any unfortunate injuries to players in the regular rotation. Rumors have begun circling that New York and their biggest offseason signing are headed toward a split, with the latter now eligible to be traded by the former.
Yabusele is good enough to play in somebody's rotation. Whether the Knicks make a different move that opens up space for him, or simply move him somewhere else, it feels like there's a solution here that gets the Frenchman on the court more often.