76ers GM Daryl Morey breaks silence on Guerschon Yabusele free agency loss

When news broke that Daryl Morey and the Philadelphia 76ers had lost power forward Guerschon Yabusele to the New York Knicks in free agency, it hit fans hard.

Sure, the 76ers are notoriously trying to retain Quentin Grimes in restricted free agency, and that process has been incredibly slow for every player with a similar status this summer, but handing the “Dancing Bear” to a division rival? For the same taxpayer mid-level exception Philly had access to? Gosh, that sucked.

Well, as it turns out, it “sucked” for Morey too, as he told reporters in Las Vegas at Summer League.

“Yeah, that sucked. Again, we got several questions on restricted free agency, I do think that overall structure played into that,” Morey explained via Sixers Wire. “We offered him the most we could that wouldn’t limit us and our ability to retain Quentin. That was above minimum. I’ve seen reports saying that that wasn’t, but it was definitely below what he got ended up getting.”

How much over the minimum did the 76ers offer Yabu? Well, in the French forward’s own words, it wasn’t much, but then again, considering Philadelphia’s current cap situation, it makes sense that Morey was hesitant to go all-in on the $5.7 million taxpayer MLE, as it could have compromised retaining Grimes, which remains the team’s top priority.

“I think people have said like that created a challenge for us, and it’s true,” Morey added. “So we want to retain Quentin. We hope to work that out with his representation, and our focus was on making sure that happens. That did impact what we could offer Guerschon.”

Had the 76ers hard-capped themselves by giving Yabusele the max amount allowed by the cap, it would have opened them up to a potential sneak attack by a cap space team like the Brooklyn Nets – then – or the Utah Jazz now. While saying goodbye to a stretch four with backup five potential and a connection with Joel Embiid was certainly a tough pill to swallow, considering how Yabusele came to Philadelphia, who knows, maybe one of his replacements, Jabari Walker or Trendon Watford, will produce similar results.