In Matisse Thybulle, Sixers hope they have found a rotation fixture through the NBA draft | David Murphy

The Sixers entered this draft knowing that they could not afford another swing-and-miss.

That’s one of the second-order effects still rippling out from the Markelle Fultz calamity. Of the eight players whom the Sixers drafted in the first round in the four drafts from 2015 to 2018, only two will enter the 2019-20 season on the active roster, and the only one with an established spot in the rotation is Ben Simmons.

Jahlil Okafor (No. 3 overall in 2015), Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot (No. 24 in 2016), and Landry Shamet (No. 26 in 2018) are all with different organizations. Furkan Korkmaz (No. 26 in 2016) is headed for free agency after having his option declined. Anzejs Pasecniks (acquired in a draft day trade with the Magic at No. 25 in 2017) is mired in obscurity overseas.

But none of those absences reverberates quite like that of Fultz, who remains stranded on the same surreal Planet of One that he has occupied since the Sixers’ disastrous decision to trade up with the Celtics and select him with the first overall pick in 2017.

Did it impact their decision-making Thursday night? Who knows.

They certainly didn’t let superstition scare them. Not only did they strike a trade with Boston to move up in the first round, from No. 24 to No. 20, they gave up the first of their two consecutive second-rounds picks to do so, allowing Boston to draft former Purdue star Carsen Edwards the pick before the Sixers nabbed Maryland big man Bruno Fernando, who was then dealt to the Atlanta Hawks for two future second-rounders and the 57th pick Thursday night. Then they used the No. 20 pick to draft Fultz’s former college teammate at Washington. That gives them the distinction of having drafted two starters from a team that went 9-22 in 2016-17.

But it’s a lot more difficult to forget how to play defense than it is to forget how to shoot, which makes Matisse Thybulle as safe a play as the Sixers were going to encounter in the latter third of the first round.

At 6-foot-6 with a 7-foot wingspan, the Arizona native was regarded as one of the best defenders in the draft, with the ability to hold the advantage against the one, two, or three. It is an elite, NBA-ready skill, one that general manager Elton Brand and head coach Brett Brown can project into their rotation as an off-the-bench wing.

There’s plenty reason to wonder whether the Sixers will end up getting anything more than that out of Thybulle. He is already 22 years old, having started four seasons at Washington. He shot just 31 percent from three-point range as a senior after shooting 37, 41, and 37 percent in his first three seasons. He averaged just 9.2 points per game in his college career, with lackluster rebounding and assist numbers.

In short, his offensive game needs work, and the Sixers don’t have the strongest track record when it comes to developing that sort of thing out of their draft crop.

But it’s safe to say that Thybulle will contribute, and he has as good a chance to do so as a rookie as anybody else the Sixers might have had in their sights after potential target Cameron Johnson went off the board much higher than projected.

There were a number of higher risk-reward plays still available when the Sixers sent the No. 24 and No. 33 overall selections to the Celtics in order to take Thybulle at No. 20.

There was the potentially disruptive length of Oregon center Bol Bol. There were a couple of former top high school prospects in North Carolina’s Nasir Little and USC’s Kevin Porter Jr. who left plenty of meat on the bone in their one season of college.

Simply put, the Sixers were in a position where they needed to minimize their risk. To make their vision work, to make their payroll work, to make the economics of the NBA work, they need at least one player to develop into a fixture in their rotation alongside Zhaire Smith, who is coming off a rookie mulligan but about whom the team remains optimistic.

They need low-cost players who at least have the ability to fill the sorts of complementary roles that were sorely missing from this team throughout the season. Defense is one of the boxes they needed to check, and they believe they have done some in Thybulle.

The hope is that he eventually develops a consistent NBA catch-and-shoot three-pointer. What really mattered, though, was his floor.