The Sixers had little choice but to trade Matisse Thybulle

🕘 Posted on: February 10, 2023 | Last updated on: March 11, 2023

Nuance is pointless in this situation. Thybulle's time with the Sixers came to an end on Thursday when he was traded to the Trail Blazers as part of a four-team transaction that sent Jalen McDaniels to Philadelphia. There are many epitaphs you could write about Thybulle's time with the franchise. The reason he left is the one that is most accurate. For the most part, the player the Sixers selected four years ago was the player they still had. This is not a criticism on Thybulle's efforts or the Sixers' smart decision to trade with Boston to get him in the 2019 draught. It's just a fact that Daryl Morey and Doc Rivers had to acknowledge as they finished getting ready for this year's playoff run. Thybulle averaged 12.1 minutes per game at the time.a group whose rotation will become much smaller once the playoffs start. The only benefit the Sixers would receive from holding him until Thursday's trade deadline would be the ability to match any contract offer he got because restricted free agency was rapidly approaching. It was obvious that they had made up their minds not to choose that option. The only choice left was to try to get back as much value as possible. You can learn everything you need to know about Thabo's worth from the Sixers' comeback. In many respects, McDaniels resembles the kind of player the Sixers believed Thybulle had a good chance of developing into. Although he is not a very effective attacking player, he is aggressive and competent enough to demand his fair share of the focus of a defence. McDaniels averaged a career-high 8.8 field goal attempts per 26.7 minutes in 56 games for the Hornets this season. That is 4.5 more attempts per 36 minutes than Thybulle had previously set a career high for. Compared to Thybulle's career average of.325, McDaniels has a better three-point percentage of.343.

McDaniels, like Thybulle, contributes significantly on defence. He is 6-foot-9, unlike Thybulle, and is able to guard ballhandlers on the perimeter as well as play the three and the four. Additionally, he doesn't have as many headaches as Thybulle had, who occasionally had a mental lapse. Where McDaniels fits in is still up in the air, but it was very evident where Thybulle did not. Despite Thybulle's prodigious defensive skills, his usefulness was constrained by the harm he caused himself on the opposing end of the court. Defenders from the opposition tended to ignore Thybulle even when he possessed the ball during the postseason last year. There were instances where he used his inherent athleticism to get revenge, but Equal parts of the time, he just appeared to be lost.It is sort of an anticlimax that Thybulle is leaving the Sixers because of how entertaining and well-known he was throughout his time there. The true drama will unfold over the next months. Compared to the previous season, they are a stronger and more sensible squad. The pairing of Joel Embiid and James Harden has appeared to be as effective as anybody could have dreamed. But Wednesday night's 106-99 loss to the Celtics did nothing to erase the impression that something is still lacking. They have now dropped three of their past four contests against the two groups in the Eastern Conference rankings that are in front of them. It's tough to foresee the changes another third-place finish may bring, especially with Harden a prospective free agent and Embiid getting restless.

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The Sixers had little choice but to trade Matisse Thybulle

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