Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Sixers should promote Thybulle for All-Defensive honor
PHILADELPHIA » A The best player in the 76ers’ loss to Phoenix Wednesday is a stArong candidate for MVP. The second best player is among the best pure point guards in history. The third didn’t score a point.
The best player, Joel Embiid, provided 38 points, 17 rebounds and a full court heave at the horn that bounced into the rim and back out and could have been a signature play in basketball history.
The second best player, Chris Paul, offered 28 points, eight assists and command of every meaningful Phoenix possession, gliding about the Wells Fargo Center with purpose and grace. His abilities at age 35 are still representative of his Hall of Fame career.
The third best player, Matisse Thybulle, should be touted by the Sixers for NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year. That would have been him so frustrating Devin Booker, as he has to many would-be scorers this season, that the Sixers would fall one possession short on a night when they were without three starters.
“I just told him he was amazing,” Embiid said afterward. “And I told him that we have two guys who have a chance to be considered the best perimeter defensive player in the league. He’s one of them.”
The other, Embiid implied, is Ben Simmons. And that has been repeated for more than three seasons, by one Sixers coach, then another. By last year, after relentless stumping, Simmons made it onto the the NBA All-Defense fist team. Though it was considered a surprise, he was not necessarily out of place with Rudy Gobert, Anthony Davis, Marcus Smart and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Simmons is long and he plays with pride at the defensive end. He is a splendid defensive rebounder, even if that skill continues to leak value as more coaches prefer their players to retreat quickly to the defensive end rather than stalk offensive rebounds. He makes steals, this year averaging 1.6, sixth most in the NBA.
But defensive excellence is an art, up for interpretation. And the more the player named for a famous painter plays, and the more he blocks shots from behind, and the more he frustrates superstars, and the more he wins playing time without being a threatening scorer, the more Thybulle emerges as a masterpiece.
Rivers was asked about that after the 116-113 loss, with the knowledge that he would have to be careful. The Sixers are committed to Simmons, whose accumulation of skills give him value, outside shooting not being on that list. A good coach will realize that Simmons is so professionally self-absorbed that he would consider anything less than a vigorous endorsement of his value insulting. So rather than risk that inroom stress, Sixers coaches have barely been able to make it out of training camp before formally supporting Simmons for Defensive Player of the Year. Call it preventative leadership.
Thybulle, though, is a better defender than Simmons.
Thybulle, though, is a unique stopper.
Thybulle bothers a player like Booker, holding him to 19 points.
Thybulle bothers every player he guards.
Yet basketball politics are tricky. One misinterpreted syllable about who he thinks is the Sixers’ best perimeter defender and Rivers has a crisis to handle. And he does make a fair point when he says a Defensive Player of the Year “probably has to play more minutes.”
If Thybulle were more efficient at the offensive end, he would play more, and with that, he would be appreciated more.
“But I’d say ‘All-Defense’ for Matisse, for sure, in my opinion,” Rivers said. “That ‘defensive’ vote is funny sometimes. They look at the players’ offensive numbers in a crazy way, which I always thought was insane. If you are a great defensive player, you are a great defensive player. And Matisse is that, for sure. There’s not 10 better defensive players in this league, I can tell you that. There may not be five.”
Embiid would be in that discussion, as he would be
pleased to acknowledge. Even his loud endorsement of Thybulle Wednesday came with a qualifier: “Perimeter” defensive player. Embiid is a treasure as a rim protector and as a physical lane deterrent. He belongs in the Defensive Player of the Year discussion. But the more the Sixers play, the more obvious it is that their best defensive player is not one of their All-Stars.
“Matisse does a great job of guarding his man and blocking shots and locking it down,” Embiid said.
“I think he did a great job last year, and I have been pushing it all season basically, because he is our dog. And he should be on one of the All-Defensive teams for sure.”
Play a big game, don’t score a point, and win endorsements for awards.
Only a great player can do that on a night when there are more than a few on the court.