The Philadelphia 76ers stole Matisse Thybulle from the Boston Celtics

Matisse Thybulle is the best minute-to-minute pickpocket in the NBA.

Though he only averages 19.2 minutes of action a night, or roughly 12 fewer minutes than Doc Rivers‘ starting five, Thybulle has recorded 71 steals, which is currently tied for sixth in the NBA with his former teammate Jimmy Butler.

Pretty impressive stuff, right? Boy, you don’t know the half of it.

You see, if Thybulle played normal starter minutes – or we normalize the entire NBA’s numbers with the handy Per 36 stat – Thybulle would outpace every qualifying player in steals per game, all the while earning serious consideration for both Defensive Player of the Year and a spot on the NBA’s All-Defense list.

Sidebar: Thybulle is also averaging a block per game, a feat that no other guard in the NBA today is accomplishing. We really are witnessing something special in South Philly, folks.

But do you want to know the greatest steal of all? The Philadelphia 76ers‘ absolute mugging of the Boston Celtics to procure Matisse Thybulle’s rights on draft night 2019.

Danny Ainge actually thought he got one over on the Philadelphia 76ers.

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There’s an old adage in cards – and apparently drafting professional athletes – that warns against giving away your hand when you’re at the table.

It makes sense, right? Crafty strategists seldom want others to know what they are doing before they do it because it’s a whole lot easier to counter a move when you know it’s coming.

If you ever see Elton Brand parked at a poker table, take a seat, because everyone and their mama knew the Philadelphia 76ers’-then GM had his heart set on selecting Matisse Thybulle in the first round of the 2019 NBA Draft.

Sure, the Sixers tried to hide it, working out players like Jordan Poole, Eric Paschall, and Grant Williams in an attempt to throw off the trail, but there was something about landing another 6-foot-5 guard out of Washington that just spoke to Brand on a primal level, even if the optics of the selection would undoubtedly be odd considering the team had just shipped Markelle Fultz out of town for the pick that eventually became Tyrese Maxey.

Considering the Sixers’ struggles to thwart the Boston Celtics in the postseason and Brand’s… unusual desire to build a defensive juggernaut antithetical to the high-scoring, high-flying 3 point fests that had taken the NBA by storm, it’s not hard to see why Thybulle was the apple of the team’s eye. He was coming off one of the most statistically unique seasons in NCAA – thanks in no small part to an insane stat line of 3.5 steals and 2.3 blocks per game – and at 22 years old, could seemingly slide perfectly into Brett Brown’s rotation in both the regular season and the playoffs.

All that had to happen was for Thybulle to slide to pick 24, the pick the Jimmy Butler-led 76ers earned for their quadruple doink loss to the eventual champion Toronto Raptors, and Brand’s vision would be one step closer to reality; a reality littered with odd choices, Al Horford bricks, and an eventual first round exit.

But Danny Ainge, ever the wily trickster, caught wind of Brand’s totally not televised draft intentions and swooped in to swindle the Sixers out of a few more assets. He drafted Thybulle 20th overall, even though the team already had a Thybulle-ish player gainfully employed in Marcus Smart, and ransomed him off to Brand for the price of the Sixers’ first round pick, and their best second round pick; a selection that would eventually be used on Carsen Edwards.

Now at the time, Brand looked pretty silly for being so transparent with his intentions, but in hindsight, surrendering a second round pick is a small price to pay to secure the rights to one of the best young defenders in the NBA.

I mean, think about it; had Boston simply selected a player they liked at 20, instead of eventually shipping out their first round pick to the Phoenix Suns for a future pick, and Thybulle came off the board with any of the next three picks instead of players like Brandon Clarke, Grant Williams, and Darius Bazley, the Sixers surely wouldn’t have been able to acquire Thybulle from the Thunder, Grizzlies, or Celtics again, forcing Brand to think on the fly and potentially select a player who wouldn’t be a rotational piece a year and a half later.

Considering the Sixers ultimately didn’t even use their other high second round pick, instead trading the 34th overall selection to the Atlanta Falcons for a pair of super future second rounders, who knows what Brand’s Plan B would have been had Thybulle not been attainable.

Oh gosh, did Danny Ainge’s Smog the Dragon-esque feverish lust for draft capital inadvertently set the Sixers up for success long-term? After getting absolutely embarrassed for trading up to take Fultz over Jayson Tatum two years earlier, it’s certainly nice to come out on top for a change.

Next. Trading for George Hill was always about the playoffs. dark

Ultimately, the Matisse Thybulle trade technically won’t be gradable until the pick the Boston Celtics received for Ty Jerome by way of Desmond Bane conveys at some point down the line, but between you and me, this feels like an absolute steal for the Philadelphia 76ers. Even if Thybulle never becomes a knockdown outside shooter, he’s become so gosh darn impactful on the defensive end of the court that having many a fan will settle for landing the second coming of Tony Allen, even if it cost an extra pick to procure his services.