BROOKLYN – The NBA Draft is oftentimes about what players can be. Potential is a powerful thing, as young men have made millions upon millions of dollars based solely on what they can maybe become as basketball players if all goes well. It’s the great paradox of the draft: Teams want good players to help them win, but are willing to invest if a player needs some time to possibly get to that point.
There is no questioning what Matisse Thybulle is as a basketball player. He is a defensive ace, the driving force behind a tenacious Washington defense that finished 18th in KenPom last season. Perhaps that’s why, during Thursday night’s NBA Draft, the Philadelphia 76ers made it a point to trade up and acquire the back-to-back Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year with the 20th pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, a situation that he called “a dream come true.”
Thybulle is a special defender. Seventeen players, in the history of Division I men’s college basketball, have registered more steals in a career than the former Huskies standout. He took the ball away from opponents 330 times in 135 career games, leading the nation with an insane steal percentage of 6.7 as a senior while spearheading the team’s stingy 2-3 zone. He was fifth in the country in the same metric as a junior. Shot blocking is also part of his game — despite standing at 6’5, Thybulle was 53rd nationally in block percentage as a senior, showing off the ability to deny shots both the rim and the perimeter.
All of this stems from the fact that Thybulle believes one of the oldest adages in the basketball world: Defense wins championships.
“There’s always a place for a defender on the court,” Thybulle told the assembled media after he was selected. “Defense has proved to help you win games and win championships. I feel like to be as valuable as possible to a team, I feel like I need to be a defender.”
This mindset fits in beautifully in Philadelphia, a team that takes pride in being a physical, nasty squad on the defensive end of the floor. Up and down the roster, the Sixers have players who have shown to be difference makers on that end of the floor — Joel Embiid is among the best defensive players in the league, Ben Simmons can guard just about anyone, and while they’re both unrestricted free agents (albeit ones the Sixers would assuredly love to bring back), guys like Jimmy Butler and Mike Scott endeared themselves to the Philly faithful thanks in part to their tenacity on that end of the floor. Even last year’s first round selection, Zhaire Smith, is a springy defender capable of raising hell against opposing backcourts.
All of this is to say that it says a lot about Thybulle’s game that he will expected to immediately be one of the best defensive players on the Sixers’ roster. And as long as he’s able to avoid the curse that ostensibly impacts every first round pick the franchise has made in recent years that causes them to get horrifically injured, it’s safe to assume his defense will give him an immediate pathway to playing for a team that has had its eye on him for some time.
“Philly showed interest early, and we just trusted them and decided we were going to put our faith in them and just kind of shut things down and see what happened on draft night,” Thybulle said on a conference call, according to Kyle Neubeck of Philly Voice. “They stayed true to their word, and yeah, the rest is history.”
Thybulle has the defense down pat, and despite less than stellar numbers from deep during the 2018-19 campaign, there’s plenty of reason he’ll be able to get both halves of the 3-and-D equation figured out. A career 78.2 percent free throw shooter, Thybulle entered his senior campaign connecting on a hair under 38 percent of his attempts from deep before struggling on threes during his final year in Seattle. He did, however, improve as an attacker as his career went on, connecting on 55.5 percent of his twos as a senior, the second-best mark on his team.
“Being 3-and-D, I feel like that’s a role I can fit into off the bat,” Thybulle says. “I took a step back in college and allowed some of my teammates to score, and that shows with my offensive numbers. But three-point shooting is something that’s come naturally to me, and I’m just excited to be able to do it at this next level.”
Thybulle will be put into a position that not all rookies can handle. From day one, Thybulle will suit up for a team that has legitimate championship aspirations. Sixers fans legitimately believe they were four bounces on a Kawhi Leonard miracle jumper away from hoisting the Larry O’Brien trophy this season, and should they retain Butler and Tobias Harris in free agency — and maybe figure out a way to bring J.J. Redick back, too — they will be comfortably among the favorites to win it in 2019-20.
It’s a lot to ask of any first-year player, but it’s a challenge Thybulle readily embraces. The 22-year-old wing says that he stayed in college so he’d be “as ready as possible” when it came time to take the floor in the Association, and in his estimation, what he does on the floor works best for a squad that is ready to compete. Fortunately for him, that sort of team just made a move to jump up in the Draft to bring him on board.
“Through the whole process, I was always telling my friends and family I want to play for a good team because I feel like my skill set is the most valuable when it comes to a team that’s already established and they have guys with roles and I know my role,” Thybulle says. “I know I can just step into that role and help this team.”
