Ranking the Portland Trail Blazers’ 4 best offseason moves
By Reese Kunz
Blazers’ best offseason move No. 2: Re-signing Matisse Thybulle
Speaking of great wing defenders, the Blazers retained Matisse Thybulle, who already has two All-Defensive Second Team awards on his resume. As a restricted free agent, Thybulle signed a three-year, $33 million offer sheet with the Dallas Mavericks, which Portland decided to match. It was a reasonable contract that made sense for the Blazers to match.
At 26, Thybulle is just entering his prime. Portland acquired Thybulle from the Philadelphia 76ers as part of last season’s trade deadline deal involving Josh Hart. Following the trade deadline, Thybulle nearly doubled his production in every statistical category, mainly due to his increased opportunity in Portland.
In the 22 games he played as a Blazer last season, Thybulle averaged 7.4 points, 3.5 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.7 steals on 44/39/63 shooting splits. The shooting from deep was a bit of an outlier, as Thybulle is a career 33 percent 3-point shooter.
Despite some offensive limitations, Thybulle is another piece of the puzzle who meshes well with the Blazers’ core. Since their promising core of Henderson, Sharpe and Anfernee Simons are all guards, Portland needed to retain a two-way wing like Thybulle.
He gives head coach Chauncey Billups another element to his roster construction. Because of this signing, Billups now has the flexibility to either start Sharpe at small forward or bring one of the young guards off the bench in a sixth-man role and keep Thybulle as the starter.
Similarly to what made Murray a good fit, Thybulle fills a positional need as a defensive-minded wing. He’s a great complementary piece alongside the trio of guards as someone who can impact winning without needing to score.