OKC Thunder Draft Prospect Profile Matisse Thybulle: Are promises meant to be broken?
By Rylan Stiles
Weaknesses
The biggest weakness, or rather question for Matisse Thybulle, is can he play on ball defense? The Washington Zone helped Thybulle show off his athletic ability, his basketball IQ, and display how good he is at recovering from his or someone else’s mistake. A zone defense gives you the freedom to do that.
We have seen that Thybulle clearly can play zone defense, and great off ball defense, but how is he in a common NBA situation of one on one iso ball? With the Oklahoma City Thunder switching almost everything on defense, though Thybulle might not start on a guy like James Harden one on one, he could get switched onto him pretty easily and no one really knows how he will fair. Look at how many times Terrance Ferguson has been switched onto James Harden in their matchups.
His on ball defense is an interesting weakness for all the things I have listed, but even I hesitate to say it is a true weakness rather a question because I believe he has the Basketball IQ to learn on the fly, and quickly adjust to life in the NBA within a year or two, or if OKC is lucky, it might just all click right away.
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His offensive game is a weakness, despite his basketball IQ, He can not make plays offensively with the ball in his hands, he is an inconsistent shooter, and has a slow jump shot that will be tested in the NBA where defenses are faster to react and close out on a shooter they have left open.
The last weakness I have for Thybulle is seemingly his lack of want or belief in himself to go get a huge defensive rebound within the trees down low. Thybulle is wildly athletic and needs the proper coaching to tap into his rebounding potential.
Combine Performance
Matisse Thybulle pulled out of the NBA Combine with an alleged promise from the OKC Thunder.