Philadelphia 76ers: Unleash Matisse Thybulle in Game 6

Matisse Thybulle is a downright lousy offense player.

Yes, his game has taken a step forward with the addition of James Harden, as he can now cut to the basket for an open layup a few times per game, but Thybulle’s outside shot hasn’t developed at all heading into his third postseason as a pro and unless he spends the summer jacking up 100 3s a day, that probably isn’t going to change anytime soon.

Savvy teams have made it a point to completely ignore Thybulle on the offensive end of the court in favor of trapping Harden, Joel Embiid, or even Tyrese Maxey, and to their credit, the strategy has largely proven a sound one, as the former first-round pick out of Washington only made 45 3s during the regular season and four during the playoffs – good for .5 makes on 1.5 attempts per game.

And yet, as their 120-85 loss to the Miami Heat so clearly proved, the Philadelphia 76ers have no chance at beating a better team when they only play their best perimeter defender for 11 minutes, five of which came in garbage time fourth quarter. With the season on the line, the only way to slow down Jimmy Butler, Tyler Herro, and company is to take the training wheels off of Matisse Thybulle and let him sink or swim with start minutes.

The Philadelphia 76ers can’t afford to let Jimmy Butler beat them… again.

According to FiveThirtyEight, the Philadelphia 76ers have three players with a Defensive RAPTOR rating of +2.0 or higher, Joel Embiid, Danny Green, and, you guessed it, Matisse Thybulle. James Harden, Tyrese Maxey, and Tobias Harris all have positive Defensive RAPTOR ratings, too, ranging from a +1.2 to a +.2, and Paul Reed has somehow secured a neutral rating of 0.0, but outside of that sextet, the rest of the Sixers’ regular rotation is defensively disappointing, to say the least.

Shake Milton, to his credit, only ranks 122nd out of 156 qualifying players in Defensive RAPTOR, with a rating of -1.5, but Georges Niang and Furkan Korkmaz have been downright horrible, ranking 133rd and 142nd among qualifying players with ratings of -3.4 and -4.8 respectively.

Factor in the absolute non-factors Niang and Korkmaz have been on offense when it counts, combining for 7-34 shooting from 3 over the Miami series alone, and giving the duo 25ish combined minutes per game feels like a pretty darning decision, to say the least.

Is Thybulle going to magically replace the 6.8 3s per game Niang and Korkmaz put up on average? Goodness no, but he has already given the Sixers three 3s on only six attempts this series, so Thybulle’s offensive production really hasn’t been as bad as advertised.

Tell me, would you rather see the Sixers give serious minutes to a one-way player who only contributes on defense or no-way players who haven’t provided much of anything at their end of the court?

Considering Miami’s commitment to double and even triple-teaming Embiid the second the ball comes his way, it’s not like Thybulle’s presence on the court is going to change Miami’s strategy all that much anyway.

Look, I’ll be the first to admit that Matisse Thybulle hasn’t been great this playoff run. His defense hasn’t been nearly as good since he was unable to travel with the team to Toronto in Round 1, and his ability to generate turnovers has all but dried up since Joel Embiid returned to the court in Game 3. With that being said, the Philadelphia 76ers have been unable to slow down Jimmy Butler, Tyler Herro, and even Max Strus when they get cooking over the past five games, and that isn’t going to change with Thybulle sitting on the bench in arguably the most important game of the season.