Philadelphia 76ers: Matisse Thybulle’s off-ball defense laps the field

Will Matisse Thybulle be on the Philadelphia 76ers‘ roster when the 2022-23 NBA season opens up this fall?

Maybe.

On one hand, the Sixers just aren’t good enough to compete with the top teams in the East; teams like the Milwaukee Bucks and the Boston Celtics. With a relatively spartan war chest of assets headlined by the 23rd pick in the 2022 NBA draft and Danny Green’s non-guaranteed contract, Thybulle might just be the best way to do secure the sort of 3-and-D starter at the small forward position the team desperately needs to glue together their starting five of disparate parts.

But then again, giving Thybulle away for free would be a mistake too. Why? Because he is quite literally the best off-ball defensive player in the NBA, and frankly, it isn’t even close.

Matisse Thybulle has elite traits, Philadelphia 76ers fans.

In the NBA, there are two types of players: Those who possess elite traits and those who don’t.

Now granted, a player can still be great without being elite in any one area; every team in the NBA has at least a few above average players who don’t excel in any one area, and they’re usually regarded very highly, as they can stay in the court regardless of the situation and don’t have to be subbed out offensively or defensively because of a deficiency in their game.

Furthermore, some players have more than one elite trait. Take, for example, Joel Embiid, who is pretty much elite at everything teams want a center to do. He’s an elite rim protector, an elite shooter, scorer, and quite possibly the best foul merchant in NBA history, as he both draws them and connects on 81.4 percent of his free throws.

Matisse Thybulle is not a very good two-way player. He does get subbed out from time to time for his bad offensive game, and teams will quite literally ignore him on offense in favor of doubling Joel Embiid. With that being said, Thybulle is an elite defender, specifically off-ball, and while some may call him overrated, it’s hard to be overrated when you are quite literally the best player in the world at what he does.

As you can see, Thybulle is not only the best passing lane defender in the NBA, narrowly edging out Gary Payton for the honor, but the second-best ball screen defender too, right behind Sixers draftee and noted Process starter Jrue Holiday. Thybulle has a defensive skill set as varied as Kyrie Irving’s layup package and has developed an innate ability to disrupt plays in a variety of different ways. He can lock in on the ball, sag off to feign the guise of an open man, and even “allow” drivers to get past him only to block the ball from behind.

Again, if the deal is right, Thybulle should 100 percent be traded, but don’t think his loss would be addition by subtraction because his replacement would likely be able to shoot the ball at least okay; Thybulle is an elite performer who impacts a game more than just 1.7 steals and 1.1 blocks would suggest.

Drafting Matisse Thybulle in 2019 – okay, technically trading for Matisse Thybulle- was the right decision. Thybulle has well surpassed his draft status and become one of the best players in the NBA at what he does. Whether on the Philadelphia 76ers or another team, someone is going to be happy to have Thybulle on their roster this fall, especially if he develops even an average outside shot.