Jalen McDaniels, Matisse Thybulle embody ‘weird’ logistical challenges of an in-season trade

Whenever Jalen McDaniels starts his rental car to drive to the 76ers’ practice facility in Camden, he still needs to plug the address into his GPS.

Consider that a byproduct of McDaniels’ status as a player traded during the season, when life is abruptly uprooted and shifted as much as the job to play basketball. Both sides of that scenario — which is almost exclusively unique to professional sports — were on display when the Sixers faced the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday night at the Wells Fargo Center.

Matisse Thybulle returned to the place where he played as recently as last month, while McDaniels (and veteran center Dewayne Dedmon, whom the Sixers recently signed off the buyout market) aimed to settle into their new surroundings.

“Just not knowing where a lot of things are [is the challenging part],” said McDaniels, who joined the Sixers from the Charlotte Hornets as part of the four-team deadline deal that sent Thybulle to Portland. “[I’m] just getting adjusted … so I can be more comfortable and feel like home.”

McDaniels, a 25-year-old wing, had been living in a Center City hotel arranged by the Sixers’ player engagement department since arriving in Philly in mid-February. Though he did not mind housekeeping tidying his room daily, he missed having his own privacy and space.

“It’s not the same vibe as your house,” McDaniels said from Miami last week. “It makes a big difference, honestly.”

During the All-Star break, McDaniels swung through Charlotte for a few hours to pack the remainder of his clothes and footwear that the self-proclaimed sneakerhead playfully deemed “closest to me.” Since he already had his Xbox gaming system with him, McDaniels said, he didn’t need much else to customize the new space. But he acknowledged that he doesn’t like when his belongings are separated.

McDaniels had narrowed down a list of housing options on the Sixers’ most recent road trip, and was prepared to move in “immediately” when they returned to Philly earlier this week. A short-term lease was required, given McDaniels’ upcoming free agency means his Sixers tenure might only last a few months.

Dedmon is in a similar situation, with a couple notable differences. Though he arrived with some familiarity with the area after playing for the Sixers from 2013-14, he has still mostly been in a cycle of shuttling solely from the practice facility to his hotel room. The 33-year-old’s wife, Kayla, has taken on many of the ongoing moving (and downsizing) logistics for them and their children, who are ages 4 and 1.

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“Shout out to her for handing that,” Dedmon said following the Sixers’ shootaround in Indianapolis.

Thybulle, meanwhile, briefly returned to his Northern Liberties apartment this week. He went through some mail and thanked his neighbors who, Thybulle said, kept his plants alive and grabbed his packages. He also stopped by his favorite coffee shop Friday morning.

When the Trail Blazers return to Portland, he too will continue living out of a downtown hotel.

“Truth be told, there wasn’t a lot of time to think or set up things,” Thybulle said of leaving Philly, while sitting inside the Wells Fargo Center’s visitors’ locker room. “I got a call, and the next day, I’m on a flight. And then you want to try to think about everything you left, but there’s so much in front of you that you try to take in; playbooks, people, names, faces.

“It’s a weird temporary feeling of just not having found my footing, but it’s coming. As long as I feel it on the court, the rest will come.”

The basketball implementation has also been relatively smooth for McDaniels, who has drawn the praise of coach Doc Rivers and teammates for his versatility and activity on both ends of the floor.

He is averaging 6.1 points and 3.8 rebounds in 12 games for the Sixers entering Sunday’s matchup against Washington Wizards. He played down the stretch of their comeback win at the Milwaukee Bucks when Tobias Harris and P.J. Tucker were injured, and totaled 20 points and eight rebounds in his first start at the Indiana Pacers on Monday. He finished with four points and three rebounds during Friday’s victory over Portland, but struggled with foul trouble while spending time guarding perennial All-Star Damian Lillard.

Dedmon has not yet played for the Sixers, partially due to a hip injury sustained almost immediately following his arrival. Thybulle, meanwhile, totaled five points and two rebounds in 20 minutes in his first game against his former team, and has been shooting 40.4% from three-point range with the Trail Blazers.

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The Sixers are in Philly until Tuesday, giving McDaniels more time to get acquainted with his new city before they play seven of eight games on the road. He went for a spontaneous walk one of his first days in town, and wound up at the Apple Store on Walnut Street. He recently discovered a Raman restaurant he described as “fire.”

Hopefully soon, he can ditch those turn-by-turn directions while driving to the the practice facility.

“I’ve been thinking I know where to go,” McDaniels said. “But, nah.”