Philadelphia 76ers: How Matisse Thybulle compares to Marcus Smart in Year 2

Whether Matisse Thybulle plays 10 more games or for the next 10 years with the Philadelphia 76ers, he will forever go down as a Boston Celtics draftee.

Now granted, Thybulle was only selected by the Celtics in name only, as Danny Ainge effectively selected the 6-foot-5 winger out of Washington as a hostage to finesse a few additional assets out of Elton Brand and company, but his draft night pictures will forever show the Scottsdale, Arizona native in a green hat with a Celtics badge in place of the usual clover.

But do you know what? I don’t particularly care what team initially drafted Thybulle, who he rooted for during high school, or if he’s a secret Cowboys fan – okay, maybe strike that last one – I’m just happy number double duce is wearing a Sixers jersey now and for the foreseeable future, as he’s been a certified game-changer for the team on the defensive end of the court.

Whether locking down the Pacers alongside Ben Simmons in a 2-3 matchup zone or holding reigning Western Conference Player of the Week DeAndre Fox to six points from the field over the entire fourth quarter of the Sixers’ 119-111 win over the Sacramento Kings, Thybulle has found a way to impact a game without so much as scoring a point, which is an increasingly rare feat in the modern NBA.

Heck, Thybulle didn’t take a single shot against the Kings, and he arguably deserved to be the team’s bell ringer – if that was still a thing – for his defensive efforts.

So, naturally, fans of basketball are going to look for comparisons for Thybulle in an attempt to understand his unicorn-ish tendencies and try to project out his potential moving forward, but who plays like ‘Matheif’? Tony Allen? Andre Roberson? In my humble opinion at least, we don’t have to look too much further than Thybulle’s fellow Celtics draftee Marcus Smart.

Can Matisse Thybulle be the Philadelphia 76ers’ answer to Marcus Smart?

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Objectively speaking, Marcus Smart is a bust.

Sure, the former Oklahoma State Cowboy has been a fixture of Brad Stevens’ starting five, a pest for opposing scorers the league over, and a legit challenger for the moniker of ‘Biggest Flopper in the NBA,’ but we’re talking about a player DraftExpress compared to Dwyane Wade coming out of college.

Even if Smart has proven himself a true blue lunchpail player who will remain gainfully employed for however long he wants to play in the NBA, Dwyane Wade he is not, and unless the 26-year-old guard can start averaging 12 more points a game, that’s probably not going to change for the seventh-year pro.

What Smart can do with regularity, however, is take over a game on the defensive end of the court.

In roughly 32.3 minutes of action a night, Smart averages 1.8 steals, .5 blocks, 2.8 rebounds, and 66.1 assists a game as the Celtics’ unconventional combo guard. Despite his average-at-best size for a professional shooting guard, Smart has proven himself to be one of the nastiest on-ball defenders in the NBA, willing to do all the dirty deeds needed to challenge opposing ball handlers at every position, even center.

But as a second-year pro, well, Smart was a part-time player largely tasked with coming off the bench as a defensive stopper behind then-starter Isaiah Thomas and our old friend Evan Turner.

Playing 27.3 minutes of action a night largely in a sixth-man role, Smart averaged 9.1 points, 1.5 steals, three assists, and 4.2 rebounds a game over a 61 game sample size. Often tasked with being the Celtics’ first guard coming off the bench, routinely as a small-ball three in a three-guard formation alongside Thomas and Avery Bradley, Smart provided Boston with a defensive spark when paired up with Boston’s diminutive starters or as an on-ball guard running the second unit solo.

Exclude the second-unit ball handling, and who does that sound like? Yeah, that’d be Thybulle.

Now grated, Thybulle wasn’t blessed with Smart’s offensive fearlessness, as the second-year guard/forward attempts 5.4 fewer shots from the field a game, but outside of scoring, the duo have comparable stat lines.

When comparing their stats Per 100 possessions, there’s a lot alike about the two guards, with Thybulle getting the nod at steals, blocks, and turnover percentage, and Smart earning better marks at assists and rebounds. Both men have defensive ratings of 103 or higher but unfortunately hit 3 pointers at a woeful 25 percent clip.

Had Thybulle too been a former five-star point guard recruit who averaged 16.6 points and 4.5 assists a game as a consensus All-American, maybe he too would have been a top-10 pick, but instead, he averaged 9.7 points and two assists (plus 2.5 steals) on some hot and cold Huskies teams and fell out of the lottery entirely.

No matter how you slice it, Thybulle wasn’t as highly touted as Smart coming out of high school, coming out of college, or as a second-year pro, but in a way, he’s been similarly impactful for an Eastern Conference club vying for the best playoff positioning possible.

Could Thybulle one day develop into a starter, let alone one who averages 10-plus points a game? Again, not if he only takes 3.3 shots per game, but on a macro-level, yeah, it’s possible. Thybulle played 11 minutes and 40 seconds of the Sixers’ fourth-quarter win over the Kings, and there wasn’t a fan in (virtual) attendance calling for him to be subbed out. If he can put up comparable numbers to Green as a fifth starter – scoring 8.8 points and 3.6 rebounds in 28 minutes of action a night – the Sixers could field one of the most imposing, impressive two-way offenses in the NBA, especially if they can land a versatile combo forward to avoid playing the 6-foot-5 guard at power forward ever again.

In hindsight, the Boston Celtics royally messed up by passing off Matisse Thybulle to the Philadelphia 76ers. Sure, Carsen Edwards has looked alright at times, and the team has a pair of future second-round picks to use after a roundabout series of trades, but having Thybulle and Marcus Smart on the same roster, let alone on the court together, would form a virtually unprecedented backcourt tandem that would allow Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum to feast. Fortunately, Danny Ainge was hoist with his own petard and gave his former head coach, Doc Rivers, an incredibly effective one-way piece who should give the Celtics fits for years to come, even if he never is able to reach the offensive heights of his Bostonian counterpart.