Sixers: Matisse Thybulle would be a top-5 pick in 2019 re-draft

Throughout this season and especially during these playoffs, Matisse Thybulle of the Sixers has proven that he’s not just great defensively, but he might just be an all-time elite perimeter defender.

He recently joined an elite company with is five blocks and four steals in the Philadelphia 76ers Game 2 win against the Washington Wizards. The tweet below explains just how special he is on that side of the ball.

He’s already joined that elite company and he has a legit case to make the second team All-Defense in just his second season. It’s time to re-evaluate how much of a steal he was for Philly at the 20th spot in the 2019 NBA Draft. There’s a legit argument that if this class were to be re-drafted, he’d be a top-5 pick as I stated on The Sixers Sense Podcast in the most recent episode.

Sixers’ Thybulle is a top-5 pick in a re-draft of his 2019 NBA Draft class.

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There are two players from this class that clearly deserve top-5 spots and that’s number one pick Zion Williamson and number two pick Ja Morant. Williamson has already made an All-Star game and the New Orleans Pelican star has a legit shot of making an All-NBA team this season. Morant is the leading of an eighth-seed Memphis Grizzlies and is making a case for being a top-10 point guard in this league.

That leaves three other spots in the top five for Thybulle and two other players. Beyond the 76ers elite defender, there are four other players vying for the three other spots. RJ Barrett, Tyler Herro, Darius Garland, and Kevin Porter Jr.

The third overall pick in Barrett is slowly developing into a pretty good two-way wing for the New York Knicks. He still needs to improve creating his own show and being more ambidextrous, but he’s defending at a pretty high level and improved his shooting overall. He’s earned a spot in the top-5 of this re-draft.

Herro came in hot as a rookie, especially when the Miami Heat made their postseason run in the NBA Bubble last year. The former 13th pick was critical scoring the ball as the Heat made it to the NBA finals. However, playing out of the position half of this season and his stagnation in his development has made Herro not as highly valued as he was last year.  Herro is out of this top-five re-draft.

Garland had a slow start to his rookie season and it looked like a bad pick for the Cleveland Cavaliers. However, the former 5th pick has really developed as a shooter and playmaker in his second season. As a result, he and Collin Sexton are an exciting backcourt of the future and he should be in the top-5 of this re-draft.

In terms of talent, Porter Jr. has all the tools and potential to the third best player from this draft. However, off the court issues are the red flag for this young man. The Cavaliers traded the former 30th pick not even two whole seasons into his career to the Houston Rockets. Now, this could change if Porter Jr. gets his act together, but for now, Porter Jr. is out of the top-5 in this re-draft.

Re-drafting the 2019 class would have the following in the top-5 in the following order: Williamson, Morant, Garland, Barrett, and Thybulle. The Sixers have a steal from that draft class and thus far in the playoffs, it’s paying big dividends for them.