Matisse Thybulle
Portland Trail Blazers

Player Facts

Height: 6'5"
Weight: 201lbs.

Wingspan: 6'11.5"

Date of Birth: March 4, 1997
College Experience: Washington (4 years)

Selections

All Star: 0
All-NBA: 0
All-Defensive: 2

Player Grades

Speed/Explosiveness: 10
Physical Strength: 7
Positional Size: 7
Positional Wingspan: 9
Paint Scoring: 6
Midrange Scoring: 1
Three-Point Scoring: 5
Dribbling: 4
Passing: 4
Perimeter Defense: 10
Interior Defense: 7
Rebounding: 5

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JUMP TO SECTION

> Intro

> Some Threes

> Cutting Against Daydreamers

> Elite Checking 1-3

> Distinct Deadly Defense

> Instinctual Off-Ball Defense

> Encumbered Offense

> Beacon Bacon

>Link to Player Contract & Salary Info

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*All statistical data courtesy of NBA Advanced Stats

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STRENGTHS

Intro

The Australian wing has premier physical tools which he leverages to be an all-world perimeter defender. Thybulle stands at 6-foot-5 with a wingspan of just under seven feet. He plays a unique defensive style which maximizes his idiosyncratic athletic strengths.

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Some Threes

The commentary on Thybulle's offensive game will not be the lengthiest, as he has some major limitations here. Still, he can contribute in a couple of distinct ways. His 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 seasons saw him settle in around 35-36% from deep which is close to league average albeit still on low volume.

The Washington product's three-point shot has served as a major swing factor for his career. When he is hitting spot-up threes, the sky is the limit for his minutes given his stamina and elite defense. That has proven to be a major "if" though.

Team offenses have generated ultra-clean looks for the forward. He will often set up shop in the corner, but his defender may not always follow. He has played beside high-gravity stars like Joel Embiid, James Harden, and Damian Lillard.

2022-2023 in Portland finally saw Thybulle nail a healthy amount of his three-balls. These were mostly from the corner, often set up from Dame's defense-collapsing drives. His zero-dribble 3PT% finished firmly higher than those in the couple of seasons prior.

Cutting Against Daydreamers

Thybulle's other noteworthy offensive skill is his ability to cut and finish around the rim. There is no shortage of back-cutting and even face-cutting opportunities with his defender often paying him no mind off-ball. The 6'5" swingman makes use of that athleticism by bolting to the basket in these spots.

2021-2022 saw him score 1.43 points per play off his cuts. That settled him in the league's 79th percentile. His 109-point total here bettered the marks of Mikal Bridges, Desmond Bane, and Harrison Barnes. He was again in the league's upper half more recently in 2023-2024.

After the catch has been made around the rim, he does a good job using his quick jump to finish with dunks. He had 60 dunks across 2021-2022 (about one per game) while sporting a comically low usage rate. His overall 75.4% at-rim clip was very strong.

Elite Checking 1-3

Outstanding, uniquely-packaged defense is what keeps coaches enamored with the idea of Matisse Thybulle. There may not be a better perimeter option when considering someone to put on anyone from positions 1-3 in the NBA. He's a multi-time All-Defensive Team member despite usually playing far fewer minutes than his peers (due to offensive restrictions).

Beginning with his positional malleability, he can be elite on guards, small forwards, and certain four-men. The Aussie marries built-in-a-lab athletic tools with picture-perfect technique and mirroring skills to be special here. 2021-2022 had him third in the Association with a 3.3 defensive box plus-minus figure (a credible catch-all defensive metric). He upped that to 3.4 in his age-26 season with Portland (2023-2024).

That alluded-to isolation defense is a strong pillar in what is a phenomenal defensive resume. 2023-2024 saw him spend about 340 matchup minutes standing across from a guard. These were tough times for the offensive player, as Thybulle held them to a low 42.3% from the field and 29.2% from three with a bunch of on-ball pickpockets mixed in.

The former Husky brings marvelous point of attack defense too. He proficiently gets skinny around screens to sustain connectivity with the ball-handler. With great length and big hands, he piles up back-taps when he does get beat off the bounce with those great recovery tools.

Distinct Deadly Defense

The previously mentioned uniqueness of Thybulle's style is often clearest when examining his ball screen defense. He uses a strange tactic where he will go over screens and willingly play from the side/behind against pull-up threats. This is strictly a means to unlock his length and hounding hunt abilities.

With offensive players knowing his resume and being generally not used to this sort of "playing behind" coverage, they can be seen uncomfortably looking back as Thybulle plays the cat-and-mouse game in their rear-view.

The key ingredient here is he has the agility and small-space burst to get back in front or at least beside players as they start to shoot. In this pursuit position, Thybulle has multiple viable options at his disposal. For one, he can poke the ball away from the back.

Besides this, he can compile blocks of jumpers and floaters from behind with that great reach and an uncanny ability to target the rock in air. He can also peel switch nicely from these under-control chase positions.

The numbers back up what is a strange but undeniably effective screen navigation style. 2021-2022 in Philly had him in the 77th percentile guarding DHOs. As a Sixer the next year, he was in the 88th percentile checking P&R ball-handlers. 2023-2024 had him in the 71st percentile in a weak team defense environment.

Instinctual Off-Ball Defense

Thybulle brings highly aware and proactive away-from-the-play defense too. His rotations are routinely on-point and he can make a difference on the scene with his size/length and some otherworldly quick-leaping ability. The flexible, elite endurance athlete is a great option to have chasing off-ball shooters.

Matisse gets his blocks very often out on the perimeter. Whether on an aggressive yet calculated closeout or a perfect off-ball pick circumvention, the generally uncommon 3PT block is not rare for him. 2020-2021 actually had him top-20 in the league in blocks despite playing just 20 minutes per night.

He brings insanely productive defensive playmaking overall on a per-minute basis. Thybulle is always residing in the upper echelon of the steals and deflections leaderboards, despite playing much less than the others. But, per-36, he becomes hard to beat as he was first in steals per-36 in 2020-2021 and remained top-3 in the next trio of seasons.

WEAKNESSES

Encumbered Offense

Thybulle has borderline debilitating offensive limitations that make it hard to play him big minutes sometimes. His up-and-down nature from deep is one of these. He seems to lose confidence in his shot at times and defenses proceed to treat him as a full non-shooter.

Matisse cannot cite the quality of his looks as any reason why he isn't more accurate. In 2021-2022, a whopping 116 out of his 144 triple tries were considered "wide open" (6+ feet of space). He hit a paltry 28.4% of these shots, strangely doing better when defenders were closer. Since coming to Portland though, he does seem to be getting a little better here.

Besides cramping the spacing, he wholly lacks on-ball creation. He is not a dribble-driver by any means. Even closeout-attacks are few and far between for the wing. His off-ball passing is nothing to write home about either.

With an offensive game predicated on 2 main things – catch-and-shoots and basket cuts, it is suboptimal that the former is an inconsistent skill. Improving to a consistent league-average or better distance shooter on decent volume will do wonders for his overall value. It really is a testament to his defense that he has already played so much in the NBA considering his offensive restrictions.

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bacon
Beacon Bacon

His sophomore NBA season already saw him land on the All-Defensive Second Team with Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler, Joel Embiid and Kawhi Leonard