Five months into the Guerschon Yabusele experiment, many believe that both the forward and the New York Knicks should be regretting their decision to join forces in free agency this past offseason.
Bill Simmons, however, is still seemingly preaching patience.
During a recent episode of his eponymous podcast, The Ringer founder made sure to note "I still like Yabusele," with special guest Zach Lowe chiming in by both agreeing with Simmons' take while also saying "I don't quite understand what's happening."
Bill Simmons still likes Guerschon Yabusele despite struggles with Knicks
Upon putting pen to paper on a two-way, $11.7 million deal with the Knicks this past July, both fans and pundits alike lauded the signing, with some even arguing it to be the biggest heist of the offseason.
Considering he had just dropped career-best averages of 11.0 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 2.1 assists on 50.1 percent shooting from the floor and 38.1 percent shooting from deep while playing with the Philadelphia 76ers a season ago, and followed up this impressive play with a standout run with Team France at EuroBasket 2025, it was hard not to see the allure of his addition.
However, through 25 games into the 2025-26 season, it's painfully obvious that the 30-year-old has fallen well short of expectations.
Yabusele has been an infrequent participant in coach Mark Brown's rotation, and, when given run on the hardwood, has only managed to post middling averages of 3.0 points and 2.2 rebounds on 40.0 percent shooting from the floor and 29.5 percent from deep.
With him on the floor, the Knicks have also only found themselves ranking in the 40 percentile in effective field goal percentage (53.7), 48 percentile in points per 100 possessions (115.0), and the 57 percentile in point differential (+1.6), according to Cleaning the Glass.
Still, despite all this, Simmons finds himself holding out hope that Yabusele can turn things around this year, though he acknowledged that such a revival may not be possible in New York, saying that the Knicks "might be the wrong team for him."
Sadly, considering his lackluster production thus far, it's not like teams are lining up to pursue his services via the trade market, and the fact that they're pressed right up against the second apron suggests that waiving him is far from a reasonable option.
Because of this, whether or not Simmons is right about the Knicks being the wrong team for him, at least this season, it seems that if Yabusele ever winds up showing that he actually has juice and can serve as a capable contributor on a title-hopeful team in 2026, it will have to come while donning the blue and orange threads.