The Los Angeles Lakers have agreed to terms on a one-year, $3.3 million contract with veteran wing defender Matisse Thybulle, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.
After finishing last season ranked 18th in defensive efficiency, L.A. saw its best perimeter stopper, veteran guard Marcus Smart, decamp for Houston early in free agency. With Luka Dončić beginning the three-year extension he signed last summer and Austin Reaves now in the fold for the next four years, the Lakers have a backcourt tilted heavily toward the offensive end of the floor, and in need of some wings capable of getting stops and creating turnovers up top to prevent new franchise center Walker Kessler from having to turn away a steady stream of drivers possession after possession. And with Kessler receiving a nine-figure deal of his own in the sign-and-trade that moved him from Utah to California, they needed those wings to come on the cheap.
Enter Ziaire Williams, the sixth-year forward they signed for the minimum last week, and the 29-year-old Thybulle, who earned a spot on the NBA’s All-Defensive Second Team following the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons.
Those were the second and third NBA campaigns for Thybulle, whom the Philadelphia 76ers selected with the 20th overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft. A defensive monster at the University of Washington — a two-time Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year and the Naismith national Defensive Player of the Year in 2019 — Thybulle proved to be an exceedingly disruptive defender right off the bat. He averaged more than four combined steals and blocks per 36 minutes, and more than five deflections per-36, across his first three seasons in Philly, carving out a rotation role on Sixers teams that made three straight playoff appearances.
As much as Thybulle’s penchant for discombobulating opposing offenses helped Philly, though, the downsides of his low-usage, low-efficiency offensive game contributed to the Sixers’ decision to deal him to the Portland Trail Blazers at the 2023 NBA trade deadline as part of a four-team swap that, most notably, landed Josh Hart in New York. He finished that season as a starter, averaging 7.4 points in 27.7 minutes per game and shooting 38.8% from 3-point land in Portland — which, combined with his defensive play, motivated the Blazers to match the three-year offer sheet that Thybulle received from the Dallas Mavericks in restricted free agency that summer.
Thybulle played 65 games (with 19 starts) in 2023-24, his first full season as a Blazer. He’d miss most of the final month, though, with a persistent right ankle issue — an extended absence that kicked off a series of injury woes for Thybulle throughout the remainder of his tenure in Portland. Knee inflammation and a nasty ankle sprain cost him all but 15 games of the 2024-25 season; a torn thumb ligament and right knee tendinopathy limited him to just 30 games last season.
Matisse Thybulle (left) has been one of the NBA’s most disruptive per-minute defenders over the years — when healthy. (Soobum Im/Getty Images)
(Soobum Im via Getty Images)
When Thybulle did get on the court, though, he was both an excellent off-ball game-wrecker — 4.2 steals, 1.1 blocks and 4.0 deflections per-36 over the last two seasons — and an improving offensive role player, taking more than 60% of his shots from 3-point range and knocking down 41.1% of them. Thybulle ended last season healthy, averaging 20 minutes per game over the final month of the regular season and playing rotation minutes during Portland’s opening-round loss to the San Antonio Spurs.
“When you have this taken away from you, it shifts your perspective,” Thybulle told reporters at his season-ending exit interview. “You realize how much is not in your control. You work hard to get here, but going through the last two or three years, I’ve seen how much can be taken away, whether you want it to or not. I have a deeper appreciation now and a greater gratitude just to be part of it — to be an NBA player, to play basketball. That’s something my younger self didn’t fully grasp, and now it’s something I really cherish.”
If Thybulle’s able to shake the injury issues to stay on the floor — he’s played more than 1,500 minutes once in seven pro seasons — while maintaining the off-ball possession-ruining and the uptick in 3-point shooting, he could prove to be the kind of narrowly tailored role player whose gifts are amplified playing next to Dončić; that would make him a steal of a deal on the minimum. If the injury bug bites again, though, and if Thybulle’s shaky on-ball defensive work continues its year-over-year downward trajectory, he might not provide the kind of outsized bang for the buck that Rob Pelinka and Co. are hoping he can.
The addition of Thybulle also puts the Lakers at 16 guaranteed contracts, as noted by ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. Since teams can only carry 15 players, another move — whether trade or a waiver — would have to be forthcoming to be able to keep Thybulle in town into the regular season.
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