Gym is already speaking volumes about rookie Thybulle
PHILADELPHIA >> Brett Brown, veteran of international basketball coaching, master of the Maine accent and comfortable in conversational Australian, knows one language more than the rest.
He knows it, listens to it, obeys it, appreciates it, understands it and applies it in his professional life.
The man comprehends gym.
Gym, the man speaks. “The gym,” the 76ers’ coach will say, over and over, “will talk to me.”
Having found it was the best way to cope in his profession, Brown has needed that skill more than ever during this preseason. His team popularly assumed to be championship ready, yet loaded with new players, many at the same position, he knew he would have to wait for the signs.
So he would hear the echoes, the rattling rims, the grunts and the crumbles. He would watch his many Sixers compete through training camp, and he would be quick with the interpretation. And there was one thing those sounds kept revealing: Matisse Thybulle was ready for the show.
“They will tell me,” Brown said, “and so far, he has spoken loudly.”
That’s why the firstround draft choice had his first career professional start Tuesday in a preseason game against the Detroit Pistons.
An exhibition in October is not a Game 7 in Milwaukee in May. Ben Simmons was taking the night off with a modest lowerback irritation and Al Horford would miss the game for load management. So Brown had a small opportunity to dispense training-camp rewards. And that’s exactly what Thybulle’s first start was: Validation.
“I mean, he earned this opportunity to start,” Brown said. “There wasn’t much in my mind that was preordained. For sure, I had some set of opinions. But I also believe. And
I feel like I’ve lived it in open-mindedness.
“There’s no marching orders from front offices to me.”
The 20th pick in the last draft, Thybulle would come into camp with firstround elbow room. Front office orders or not, he would have every chance to thrive. But almost instantly, he showed he was something special. At 6-5 but with a seven-foot wingspan, Thybulle has a favorable build for his No. 1 skill, which is to steal the ball. It’s how he was able to break the Pac-12 record for steals, previously held by Gary Payton. So it was that as early as the rookie camp, word would begin to seep out of Camden that Thybulle was NBA ready. But it wasn’t until later, toward the end of the summer, that he began to feel prepared for basketball at the highest level.
“Actually, it started right before training camp,” Thybulle said. “When we started playing pickup and the guys were all around and I got a chance to play with them, I started to realize, ‘Hey, I kind of belong here.’ And having that realization was pretty huge for me, just even going into training camp. Then it just built after that.”
Once sprung on the public, Thybulle was immediately impressive.
In 17 minutes of the preseason opener against the Guangzhou Loong-Lions of China, he made three steals and shot 4-for-6 for 10 points. Two games later, in Orlando, he would go for 10 points in a victory at Orlando. By Tuesday, even if there were manufactured lineup openings, he was an NBA starter.
To a point, even he was surprised at how quickly that happened.
“Yeah,” he said. “Granted, there are some guys not playing. It’s still an honor to be able to start.”
That Thybulle was starting was not as significant as who was not. Zhaire Smith, the first-round draft choice from last season, didn’t win that spot. Shake Milton did earn a start in Orlando, but he was not in the starting lineup Tuesday. Brown wasn’t anxious to complicate his substitution patterns by shoving Mike Scott up a depthchart notch. And James Ennis had the night off to rest a sore calf. Still it was clear: After just three preseason games, Thybulle had bounced toward the meaningful portion of the rotation.
“It’s exciting,” he said. “It’s definitely cool enough to play in an NBA game. But to start in an NBA game is pretty exciting.”
With that, there would be the responsibility to play well. Because even in a “gym” with 20,000 seats, Brown would be listening. But so far, the Sixers are convinced they’ve found something special out of the University of Washington in their most recent draft-night exchange with Danny Ainge.
“He does things instinctively defensively that are unusual for a rookie,” Brown said. “I label him a thief. You can make responsible plays, or just be a wild, reckless thief. But what I have learned from him is that he can make up for a reckless mistake, for an inappropriate gamble.”
Starting his top draft choice in a preseason game was not a reckless gamble for Brown. At some point, the Sixers owed it to themselves to give that a lengthy look. But to win this season with a team not constructed to win from beyond the three-point line, the Sixers will often need to begin their offense at the defensive end. For that task, Thybulle will be ideal as an early-rotation gamechanger.
Or, maybe, as an occasional starter?
“You still have a job any time you go out there on the court,” Thybulle said. “I don’t think my job has changed. When I am going in has changed. So I have the same mentality, be able to play with high defensive intensity, get in transition, make threes.” He can do all of that. Who said so?
The gym.
Contact Jack McCaffery at jmccaffery@21stcenturymedia.com; follow him on Twitter @JackMcCaffery.