Mike Brown Reveals Why Knicks Failed Guerschon Yabusele

Looking back at the Guerschon Yabusele experiment in New York, it seemed like it would never work. Now, New York Knicks head coach Mike Brown has somewhat confirmed it.

In the last match, the Knicks HC met his former player in Chicago for the first time after the trade and opened up about Yabusele's quiet and unproductive time in New York, which seemed like a disaster that no one wanted to talk about while it was ​‍​‌‍​‍‌​‍​‌‍​‍‌happening.

"The position he's shown he's best in in the NBA — the small-ball center spot — we just didn't have the minutes consistently for him to be there," Brown said before the matchup, per Stefan Bondy of the New York Post.

"And then when he was at the 4. For us, because of our centers, the matchups weren't always there. So we had to pick and choose when he was on the floor and how we were going to play him."

A​‍​‌‍​‍‌​‍​‌‍​‍‌ rotation squeeze like that totally wrecks a player's rhythm and self-belief. Yabusele barely got 8.9 minutes average over 41 games, a very harsh usage rate for a player who had signed a two-year, around $12 million deal last summer.

Karl-Anthony Towns and Mitchell Robinson practically ate up all the minutes that Yabusele would have needed to keep his game at a high level and be ​‍​‌‍​‍‌​‍​‌‍​‍‌effective.

Yabusele Was a Different Player Against the Knicks

Sunday​‍​‌‍​‍‌​‍​‌‍​‍‌ served as a glaring reminder of how much New York was really leaving up there. Making a start for Chicago, Yabusele showed the world that he was worth the trade with a 11 points and 13 rebounds against his former team, a double-double performance that said everything words couldn't.

Apart from that, he was averaging 10.6 points and 6.3 rebounds in around 25 minutes of playing time in Chicago. There was some fire between teams, with Yabusele doing Mikal Bridges' signature celebration.