Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Brown plans to ‘grow’ Thybulle during Embiid’s injury absence
PHILADELPHIA >> At least until Joel Embiid returns from a finger injury, Brett Brown’s lineup choices will be made on a night to night basis.
Count on one constant component, however: Matisse Thybulle.
After first plugging Mike Scott into his top unit while Embiid recovered, Brown Friday gave Thybulle a second consecutive start in a game against the Chicago Bulls.
Don’t be shocked if there is a third a fourth, a fifth …
“I’m playing with that,” Brown said. “I will say I am going to grow him. Sometimes that may mean starting, sometimes that may mean not. But my intention is to grow him. And I feel like when I look at the playoff crystal ball and what’s it going to look like, I believe he is going to be there.”
In his most recent game, Thybulle played 27 minutes and scored five points Wednesday against the visiting Nets. But he blocked four shots and affected plenty more with his exceptionally long arms.
“With his length, he has the ability to make a mistake and still have the athleticism and the determination to go make a play,” Brown said. “He gives us switch ability. Then you go to the offensive side and he’s a deer. He’s the flyer headed to the corner.”
Ultimately, Brown will return to a frontcourt of Embiid, Al Horford and Tobias Harris, and the more deliberate style of play that would demand. But Embiid’s absence does present the opportunity to allow Thybulle more meaningful minutes, and that should be to the Sixers’ benefit in the postseason.
“I feel a need,” Brown said, “to start putting that into place now.”
• • • Thybulle’s seven-foot wingspan has its values. Yet it seems to put the rookie at consistent risk of foul trouble.
Against the Nets, Thybulle had early foul trouble, driving him to the bench. He finished with five fouls.
When that trend was evident in the preseason, Brown preached patience, saying too much attention on fouling might put unnecessary limitations on his gifted rookie.
But the season is more than half over, and either Thybulle is fouling too often or simply is not getting a veteran’s treatment from the whistle-blowers. Both maybe? “I think he’s fouling them,” Brown admitted. “I do. I think he’s fouling them. And this is a good thing. This is like, ‘Matisse, this is the fragility of it.’
“I think that some of his fouls, a lot of them, are false,” Brown added. “But that’s part of his evolution. It’s part of his growth and it’s part of the pain I am prepared to live with because I think it will help him.”
• • • The Sixers, it has been mentioned once or twice over the years, are not opposed to load management. Considering his frontcourt workload was designed to be supplemented by Embiid, there might have been opportunities in the second half of the season to provide Al Horford, 33, with some rest.
But with Embiid out, Horford’s workload is less likely to be diminished … and could increase
“If you look at it, it may go up a little bit,” he said. “But it’s never going to be a reckless amount. You are going to see him come in and play 32 minutes. Some nights it may creep up to 34. But we’re never going to blow him out to 42 because we don’t have Joel.”
Brown admits Horford’s responsibilities will change, including more pick-and-pop opportunities and more challenging defensive assignments. Such flux could add to his nightly burdens in the second half of the season.
“But in terms of his minutes swelling up, and us cutting off our nose to spite our face,” Brown said, “that’s not going to happen.”
• • • In the past, Brown has used the phrase “tournament” to characterize lateseason playing-time competition. But that’s not what he is doing with Raul Neto and Trey Burke, two backup guards fighting for the same minutes.
Earlier, Neto was ahead on that depth chart. Recently, it had been Burke. The other night against Brooklyn, it was Neto nosing to the front. What gives? “There is a mindset that I have, and that is to not let somebody rot on a bench,” Brown said. “I am mindful of that. They are both very good players, and they are very different. So when do I make the decision? Certainly, it is based on the opponent. But the human side, the coaching responsibility, factors into it.”
••• The NBA trade deadline is Feb. 6. Brown is convinced that Elton Brand is the right general manager to make the Sixers better for the pennant race. How convinced? “I think the world of him,” Brown said. “The club should sign him to a 50-year contract.” That convinced. “He doesn’t have to do this,” Brown said. “He’s not poor. But he does it with such passion. You call him at seven in the morning and he is on his way to yoga. He’s in the game. He’s healthy. He’s in it. And he wants to do a good job here.”
• • • The Bulls are receiving some quality play from Thaddeus Young. Once a popular Sixer, the 12-year veteran brought a 9.1 scoring average into play Friday, and had just dropped 18 on the Wizards Wednesday.
“He’s one of our better defenders and one of our better steal guys in our system,” Chicago coach Jim Boylen said. “He’s a voice in the locker room. He’s a competitive person who is always ready to play and practice. He never takes a day off. He is a great guy.”