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Trail Blazers match offer sheet and retain former Sixer Matisse Thybulle

The Blazers are matching the three-year, $35 million offer sheet that the restricted free agent received from the Dallas Mavericks.

Portland's Matisse Thybulle fights the Sixers' James Harden for a loose ball on March 10.
Portland's Matisse Thybulle fights the Sixers' James Harden for a loose ball on March 10.Read moreSteven M. Falk / Staff Photographer
    by Staff Reports
    Published 

The Portland Trail Blazers have decided that Matisse Thybulle and his lockdown defense are worth keeping around.

The Blazers matched the three-year, $35 million offer sheet that Thybulle received from the Dallas Mavericks, a source confirmed Thursday. Thybulle, 26, was a restricted free agent. The deal includes a player option for the third year.

The Sixers dealt Thybulle to Portland at the February trade deadline, part of a four-team deal in which Philly acquired forward Jalen McDaniels and two second-round picks. McDaniels has agreed to join the Toronto Raptors as a free agent.

The Boston Celtics selected Thybulle out of Washington with the 20th overall pick in the 2019 NBA draft before trading him to the Sixers. He played the first 3½ seasons of his NBA career here, averaging 4.4 points and earning NBA All-Defensive second-team honors in 2021 and 2022.

» READ MORE: Half-vaxxed Matisse Thybulle is a bad (and badly informed) Sixers teammate | Marcus Hayes

With the Blazers, Thybulle averaged career highs in minutes (27.7 per game), points (7.4), rebounds (3.5), and three-point percentage (.388) over the final two months of the season.

The Mavericks nearly acquired Thybulle from the Sixers at the trade deadline in a deal that was “95% completed,” according to The Inquirer’s Keith Pompey. But the trade fell apart over the Sixers’ demand for a first-round pick for Thybulle.