Getty Russell Westbrook #0 of the Los Angeles Lakers gets a rebound over Matisse Thybulle #22 of the Philadelphia 76ers at Wells Fargo Center on January 27, 2022 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The NBA season has cruised past its first real checkpoint in the season as each team has played at least 20 games. Each team is searching to put the finishing touches on their roster in order to maximize their chances of succeeding this season. The Philadelphia 76ers are no different and still have an open roster spot as well as some cap flexibility with the trade deadline beginning to inch further. The decision to release Isaiah Joe and Charles Bassey, who are both succeeding in massive ways on their new teams, also was driven by the desire to keep this flexibility.
One player who has consistently seen his name mentioned in trade talks for the Sixers is Matisse Thybulle. In a recent article by Zach Buckley of Bleacher Report, he compiled a list of targets each team should have their eyes on ahead of the deadline. Thybulle was mentioned when writing about the Nuggets. As Buckley wrote:
“To borrow a phrase from late NFL coaching great Dennis Green, the Nuggets are who we thought they were: overpowered on offense and undermanned on defense.
Trading for Thybulle is one way to address that imbalance.
He’s a tenacious on-ball defender and a disruptive presence away from it. He’s also presumably obtainable since the Sixers’ hesitance to play him now (career-low 11.2 minutes per game) could signal an unwillingness to pay him in restricted free agency next summer. Philly has apparently deemed Thybulle’s offensive limitations too damaging to overcome, but if anyone could weaponize him as an off-ball slasher, it’d be a visionary passer like Nikola Jokić,” per Zach Buckley of Bleacher Report.
Why This Makes Sense For The Sixers:
The focus of the offseason for the Sixers was adding two-way talent to surround Joel Embiid and James Harden to form a more complete postseason rotation. Despite the hype surrounding the work Thybulle put in and the reworked jump shot, he is still a ways away from being described as a two-way player.
On the season he is averaging a career-low 11.6 minutes, 1.7 points, 1.2 rebounds, and 0.8 steals. He also is connecting on a career-worst 22.7% from beyond the three-point arc although it is admittedly on a low sample size (5 for 22 on the year).
Flipping Thybulle for a player more capable on the offensive end, even if it is a downgrade defensively, would be a worthwhile move for the Sixers. While the Washington product has some unique defensive gifts, the gaps in his offensive game make him impossible to keep him on the court in certain matchups. As alluded to in the article, Thybulle also would likely be utilized much better in Denver’s scheme which has a much more free-flowing nature. While he has shown flashes of being more effective as a cutter since Harden arrived, spacing is so crucial alongside an offense built around Embiid and the tendency of defenders to sag off Thybulle in favor of the big man causes issues for the Sixers.
The Sixers can’t play Matisse Thybulle in this series. His defense hasn’t come close to offsetting his offensive limitations.
They’re playing 4-on-5 offensively with him out there.
What is Thybulle’s Value?
The more difficult problem is finding a trade that makes sense for both sides. Thybulle’s niche skills make him difficult to evaluate. This was a major reason why the extension talks broke down this off-season. Heavy Sports Sean Deveney recently spoke with an anonymous Eastern Conference Executive who broke this down and stated,
“At his salary number ($4.4 million) and with restricted free agency, the market is going to be a little tough for him, you can’t really match big numbers. Chicago is the team you hear because of his link to (Marc) Eversley, but there was nothing there the Sixers really wanted. He will probably come up again if they can package him with someone and address a problem, but they seem to like the depth that they have,” per Sean Deveney of Heavy Sports.
When looking at the Nuggets roster, Jeff Green ($4.5 million) and Ish Smith ($4.75) million are two of the names that are roughly in the same category. However, neither of these players jumps off the page as the Sixers’ missing piece. If Thybulle is packaged with another player, it could open the door for a few other options but with him in the final year of his contract- teams may not be as motivated to negotiate.
If the Sixers can find an upgrade at the wing position in exchange for Thybulle, they should absolutely go for it. Talks are expected to heat up once December 15th kicks off the unofficial start of trade season as players who signed this summer are now eligible to be dealt. Tobias Harris has also heard his name mentioned plenty and will be a name worth monitoring. If one thing is certain, Daryl Morey is not finished putting his fingerprints on this roster and the team likely will need a boost to ensure they have a chance to get over the edge.