Not only did the Portland Trail Blazers lose Matisse Thybulle in free agency, but they also lost him to the Los Angeles Lakers of all teams. ESPN's Shams Charania reported Monday that Thybulle is joining the Lakers on a one-year, $3.3 million deal.
Even factoring in Thybulle's extensive injury history, that's a steal for Los Angeles, who desperately needed more two-way wings after their eventful offseason. The Lakers have strategically made offseason moves to surround superstar Luka Doncic with complementary pieces similar to what he had with the Dallas Mavericks, and perimeter defenders were the obvious missing piece to that formula.
Lakers just stole Matisse Thybulle from the Blazers
Unfortunately, Los Angeles' gain comes at Portland's expense as Thybulle was one of the top remaining (realistic) free agency options. The Blazers still have one final spot remaining on their 15-man roster after bringing in Micah Potter, and worse, still need a two-way wing like Thybulle.
This team is hurting for wing/forward depth to spell Deni Avdija and Toumani Camara, especially with Jerami Grant and Kris Murray now in Memphis. Perhaps Jrue Holiday's positional versatility and a potential leap from Sidy Cissoko will help address that lack of depth, but the point remains: this is a lopsided roster.
Bleacher Report's Zach Buckley even recently named Portland as one of five teams whose rosters make absolutely no sense. Bringing back Thybulle wouldn't have solved all those problems at once, as they still have logjams to sort out at both the point guard and center spots. But it would've been a step in the right direction to at least attempt to round out this roster.
Maybe GM Joe Cronin was concerned by Thybulle's inability to stay on the court, having totaled just 45 games played over the last two seasons. Who knows, maybe he even has a follow-up move up his sleeve to make better sense of the Morant deal and letting Thybulle join a West rival. But the further we get into the summer, the harder it is to understand.
Individually, bringing in pieces like Morant, Potter, and even Branden Carlson aren't necessarily bad moves. When you zoom further out and look at the Blazers roster as a whole, as a team that already needed forward depth and now finds themselves without Grant, Murray, and Thybulle, it becomes more difficult to see the vision.
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