Yabusele shows long game

Guerschon Yabusele has a lot of traits you look for in a solid NBA player, but not in the body one might expect.

The 6-foot-8, 260-pounder looks every bit the low-post banger that averaged 6.8 rebounds per game last season for Rouen Metropole Basket in France’s LNB Pro A league.

But, given his build, the 42.6-percent shooting from beyond the 3-point arc stands out just a bit more. Perhaps that’s what Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge liked when he selected the 20-year-old with the 16th pick in last night’s NBA draft.

One of the main needs the Celtics have this offseason is outside shooting. Although the Celtics have an emerging scorer in All-Star point guard Isaiah Thomas, there really isn’t a dependable sharpshooter on the roster.

That isn’t to say the Celtics have major offensive problems; they ranked fifth in the league with 105.7 points/game in the regular season. However, they were third from the bottom at 33.5 percent beyond the arc. For a team that took 26.1 3-point attempts per game, that kind of efficiency won’t cut it.

The Celtics certainly didn’t address that need with their first pick of the night at No. 3: Cal’s Jaylen Brown is basically an athletic slasher and threat in the open court. Enter Yabusele, who is everything but an athletic slasher. He averaged 11.5 points and 6.8 rebounds in 28.7 minutes per game.

While there’s not a lot of readily available scouting film on him, the main takeaway at first blush is that 3-point ability.

Unless something unexpected happens, Yabusele won’t make an immediate impact. The Celtics will likely stash him in Europe for developmental purposes until he becomes something a little more useful. How long that takes is anyone’s guess, but at this stage, a player of his size and somewhat advanced shooting ability at least gives off a bit of promise.

The Celtics have an idea of what they would like that promise to become, but given what he is now — the sort of misshapen bundle of skills he has — it may be harder to discern what Yabusele brings to the table than your average unknown quantity coming out of the draft.

“I’m going to bring a lot of energy on my new team, try to be an energizer on the team, play great, help my teammates, and try to be the best on the court,” Yabusele said.

At least in France, he can shoot. Whether he can do it or not against NBA defenses remains to be seen.