Philadelphia 76ers: Matisse Thybulle was predictably missed

In Games 1 and 2 of the Philadelphia 76ers‘ series against the Toronto Raptors, Gary Trent Jr. wasn’t a particularly impactful player.

Now sure, some of that had to do with a non-COVID illness that landed Trent Jr. on the injury report and cost him all of nine minutes in Game 2. Whatever Trent Jr. is dealing with has clearly impacted his usually electrifying game, and his points per game average – 4.5 – has suffered as a result.

Would you like to know what else has impacted Trent Jr.’s game? Yeah, that’d be the presence of Matisse Thybulle, who is practically built to shut down players like GTJ.

Though Thybulle’s minutes were down from his late-season average in the first two games versus Toronto, going from 24.0 to 14.6, his ability to contend with wing scorers like Trent Jr. and OG Anunoby helped the Sixers considerably and was undoubtedly a contributing factor to the team’s lopsided wins at the Wells Fargo Center.

But in Toronto? With Matisse Thybulle presumably watching from home? Well, the Philadelphia 76ers had to configure their defense a little differently, and by differently, I mean a good bit worse.

Philadelphia 76ers: Georges Niang isn’t a replacement for Matisse Thybulle.

Down Matisse Thybulle, the Philadelphia 76ers shrunk their rotation to just eight players, with Georges Niang, Shake Milton, and Paul Reed earning minutes during the first 48 minutes of regulation.

Now granted, that isn’t too abnormal; plenty of teams play intentionally condensed rotations during the playoffs, especially in a close game like the Sixers’ Game 3, where the contest’s outcome came down to the final few seconds of regulation. What is rather abnormal, however, is replacing a team’s best perimeter defender with arguably their worst perimeter defender, which, unfortunately, is how Doc Rivers opted to replace Thybulle in Game 3, as Niang’s minutes were bumped up to fill in when Danny Green went to the bench.

Theoretically, that makes sense, as the Raptors are a team with a bevy of 6-foot-6-to-6-foot-9 players, and Niang is a 6-foot-7 winger who can play either forward spot. But in practice, Niang is an incredibly inefficient defender who routinely ranks dead last on the Sixers in +/- rating – especially when DeAndre Jordan and/or Paul Millsap don’t play – and has the third-lowest Defensive Raptor rating on the team.

Niang is too slow to hold it down against traditional small forwards, too small to defend power forwards, and a player capable of being specifically targeted on the defensive end of the court, as Pascal Siakam proved in overtime. While a team can hide that when plus-defenders like DG, Joel Embiid, and Thybulle are on the court, keeping Green at small forward for an entire overtime period isn’t ideal, to say the least.

But what are the Sixers to do? The only other “wing” player who saw minutes off the bench in Game 3 was Shake Milton, who actually has a worse Defensive Raptor rating than any player on the team, regardless of position.

That, my friends, could define the Sixers’ fate in Game 4 and, ultimately, the tenor of this particular series.

Outside of melting Isaiah Joe and/or Jaden Springer out of carbonite, the Philadelphia 76ers really don’t have a clear replacement for Matisse Thybulle other than Danny Green, who played into the mid-40s in Game 3 due to overtime. While Georges Niang isn’t an ideal replacement, it’s not like the team has that many other options to turn to without radically changing their defensive strategy. My suggestion? Switch more one-through-four with Joel Embiid holding down the painted area and hope things work out.