Matisse Thybulle was terrific in his rookie season with the Philadelphia 76ers as he did a terrific job of becoming one of the better defenders in the league. He did a great job of being an active defender and he was wreaking havoc in the passing lanes for his team.
To begin his second season in the league, he was not in the rotation of new coach Doc Rivers despite his success as a rookie. He was playing sparingly and he was basically used in a defensive situation. Part of this was obviously due to an injury he sustained in training camp, but there was another reason why Rivers did not give him a look as well.
“Two things, you have to get healthy, he missed basically all of camp,” Rivers explained. “The second thing, he had to learn to play our defense. As good as he is, we thought early on, he was gambling. He’s put himself in a lot of bad spots and he was allowed to do that. Well, we don’t, we just can’t. You gotta be solid and be a team defender.”
Thybulle was a big reason why Philadelphia was able to rally and beat the Indiana Pacers on Sunday due to his team defense. Rivers put him at the top of the zone with Ben Simmons and the success was obvious.
“With his ability as an individual defender, and now you turn him into a great team defender,” the coach added. “It’s limitless in the different spots we can use him and he’s just been absolutely wonderful.”
It does help that Thybulle played a lot of zone when he was in college at Washington, but his improvement as a team defender is a big help for him and the team. They need him to continue to make these improvements to help the team.
“Matisse is just defensively, putting him in man makes him great, but putting him in zone takes him to a different level,” Rivers added. “Now, his instincts take over and his hands, I think he had 11 deflections in the fourth quarter alone. If your team has 11 in the fourth, you’re happy. Matisse had 11 on his own in the fourth quarter so that tells you how active he was.”
The Sixers will need him to continue to take it to another level when they finish up the road trip on Wednesday against the Charlotte Hornets.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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