signing as a $12 million free agent<\/a>, and at 6-foot-8 is a natural power forward but strong enough to play center.<\/p>\n![\"Guerschon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/KnicksYabuseleTipoff.jpg\")
Guerschon Yabusele wins the opening tip of Monday night\u2019s preseason game against the Wizards. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n
Against the Wizards, he was unexpectedly thrust into the starting center spot after Ariel Hukporti was ruled out with an illness, then was outplayed by former draft bust Marvin Bagley III.<\/p>\n
The Knicks were outscored by 33 points in Yabusele\u2019s 23 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was a great opportunity for him to get some time at the center position,\u201d Knicks coach Mike Brown said. \u201cIt\u2019s tough for him and he was thinking a little too much, which is gonna happen. And it kind of brought his game to a halt in other areas. I thought the second half, his energy, his activity, was a lot better. He started feeling a little bit more comfortable in the second half, but it\u2019s going to be a little bit of a learning curve for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown has said Yabusele and Karl-Anthony Towns \u2014 who also plays both frontcourt positions \u2014 have the most on their plate in the new system \u201cbecause they have to basically know all five positions and read and react in a conceptual offense.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat\u2019s happening on and off the Garden court\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Knicks by Stefan Bondy, a weekly exclusive on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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Yabusele, who is averaging 4.5 points in the preseason in 16 minutes on 33 percent shooting, said his biggest adjustment is the pace. <\/p>\n
Listed at 265 pounds, he\u2019s carrying around a big body for Brown\u2019s speedball system.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor sure, it\u2019s pretty big [of a learning curve] in the offense,\u201d he said, \u201cand also like running, so the biggest key for me was to just run all the time, try to run to the basket to try to make the other teams tired.\u201d<\/p>\n
After consecutive bad defensive possessions from Yabusele in Monday\u2019s second quarter \u2014 when he was beaten backdoor and then was out of position while being taken off the dribble \u2014 Brown subbed out the Frenchman for a quick chat.<\/p>\n
Yabusele was subbed back in about 40 seconds later.<\/p>\n
![\"Guerschon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/KnicksYabuselePass.jpg\")
Guerschon Yabusele looks to pass the ball during a preseason game against the Wizards on Monday at the Garden. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a conversation about what was happening in the game,\u201d Yabusele said. \u201cWe talked about a situation that was there, and what he wanted me to do better.\u201d<\/p>\n
After all, preseason is a good time to flatten the learning curve.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really trying to be as much as I can be focused to try to get every detail to make sure I\u2019m at the right spot,\u201d Yabusele said. \u201cFor me, it\u2019s a new team with new guys so I really try to fit into the system and be a solution not a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Guerschon Yabusele is operating on a steep learning curve, according to his new head coach, and it has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[6043,355,361,99],"class_list":["post-225653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-mike-brown","tag-nba","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}