In Latin, some would say “carpe diem.” In English, some would say, “Seize the day.” Regardless of which language is spoken, the entire world was put on notice when French forward Guerschon Yabusele dunked on LeBron James in the gold medal game for the 2024 Olympics and “seized the day”, parlaying his Olympics heroics into an NBA contract. Despite receiving the silver medal, Yabusele spoke about his intentions to make it back to the NBA later that day: 

The 16th pick in the 2016 NBA Draft, Yabusele played two seasons in the NBA before starting his overseas career in China. Little did the basketball world know that that year in China would be the last Yabusele wouldn’t be a champion. Yabusele returned to his home country to play for ASVEL, where he won a championship in both the French Cup and the LNB Pro A, the highest league in France. From there, Yabusele joined the international powerhouse Real Madrid. During three seasons with Real Madrid, Yabusele won three Spanish Supercups, two Liga ACB championships, and a EuroLeague championship. Being one of the most decorated professional players internationally, Yabusele put the entire world on notice with his Olympic performance. In three straight elimination games, Yabusele scored 22, 17, and 20 points against Canada, Germany, and the USA. All three of those teams possess immense NBA talent. 
To put into perspective the elite level that Yabusele played at during his hometown Olympics, this graphic, powered by Cerebro Sports, helps put it into perspective:

Yabusele was one of nine Olympic players to play at least four games with a 20% usage and meet the levels threshold of 70 PSP, 60 3PE, 40 FGS, 50 ATR, and 50 DSI on Cerebro’s Five Metric Suite (5MS). Additionally, notice that nearly all of the players who met this criteria were perimeter players, except for Brazil’s Bruno Caboclo (he’s finally two years away from being two years away!) and the 2023 NBA MVP (and his future teammate), Joel Embiid. 

To further understand these numbers, I provided context with the below glossaries:

Additionally, in the EuroLeague, only six other players were within the same realm of 5MS as Yabusele. For this sample size, the thresholds were 60 PSP, 70 3PE, 40 FGS, 60 ATR, and 70 DSI. Nearly all of these players are either former NBA players who can still play at an extremely high level or former high-level college players. The exception is Olinde.

The most staggering number that sticks out for Yabusele is the 3PE, which evaluates accuracy and efficiency from three-point land. In 74 games with the Boston Celtics, Yabusele shot 32.3% from three. In 59 games this past season, Yabusele shot 43.2% from three across the EuroLeague and ACB. In 2022-23, that number was 36.8%. In 2021-22, that number was 39.8%. In total, over the last three seasons, Yabusele is shooting 39.8% from 3 on over 600 attempts. That’s substantial. Yabusele, at 6’8″ and a sturdy 260 lbs, has a good chance to stick this time around if the shot continues to fall at the NBA level. Initially, the Philadelphia 76ers dabbled with the idea of signing either Philly native Marcus Morris or stretch-four Davis Bertans to be the backup power forward, but they opted to sign Yabusele. Despite Morris’ and Bertans’ ability to shoot the ball, their advanced ages make them virtually traffic cones defensively, and Yabusele possesses far more upside than either of those two options. 
Outside of Embiid, the Sixers are incredibly undersized. The starters alongside Embiid will be Paul George (6’8″, 220 lb), Tyrese Maxey (6’2″, 200 lb), Caleb Martin (6’5″, 205 lb), and Kelly Oubre Jr. (6’7″, 203 lb). On most nights, the 6’5″ Martin will likely be tasked with defending the opposing team’s power forwards, just as he did for the Miami Heat. However, the Sixers’ top options off the bench are all undersized guards (Kyle Lowry, Reggie Jackson, Eric Gordon) or backup center (Andre Drummond). The league is becoming a wing/big forward-dominated league, and despite the Sixers having three wings in the starting lineup, there are very few options off the bench in that regard. The only real forwards the Sixers had off the bench were 6’6″ KJ Martin or 6’6″ Ricky Council IV. With that said, Yabusele fits this bench unit like a glove. Despite being a hair undersized for a power forward at 6’8″, Yabusele is a sturdy 260 lbs and plays like a bowling ball. He puts the “power” in power forward. This skill set, along with the newly founded 3-point consistency, makes it appear that Yabusele’s second chance in the NBA will be a major success story.