Australian-American Thybulle, 29, was part of the men\u2019s national team that claimed its historic bronze medal <\/a>at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021 \u2013 Australia’s first men’s Olympic basketball medal.<\/p>\n He missed the cut for the Boomers’ 2024 Olympic Games campaign in Paris and his chances of making the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles<\/a> are in jeopardy with six-time NBL MVP\u00a0Bryce Cotton<\/a> now firmly in the frame. Only one naturalised player can be selected.<\/p>\n Thybulle missed 136 regular-season NBA<\/a> games since he played his last game for the Australian Boomers<\/a> on September 3, 2023, in a 100-84 win against Georgia at the FIBA Men\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you have this taken away from you, it shifts your perspective,\u201d Thybulle said at his Trail Blazers exit interview, heading into free agency.<\/p>\n \u201cYou realise how much is not in your control.<\/p>\n \u201cYou work hard to get here, but going through the last two or three years, I\u2019ve seen how much can be taken away, whether you want it to or not.<\/p>\n \u201cI have a deeper appreciation now and a greater gratitude just to be part of it \u2013 to be an NBA player, to play basketball.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s something my younger self didn\u2019t fully grasp, and now it\u2019s something I really cherish.\u201d<\/p>\n He played just 30 games for the Blazers in 2025-26, averaging 5.8 points, 2.0 rebounds, and 0.9 assists in 16 minutes per game.<\/p>\n Thybulle has earned more than USD $45.5M during his career but was new to unrestricted free agency.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t really know how the whole proper free agency thing goes,\u201d he admitted.<\/p>\n \u201cI was a restricted free agent before, but this is very different.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t have expectations \u2013 I don\u2019t know what to expect \u2013 but I would love to be a part of this team again.<\/p>\n \u201cLike I said, it\u2019s a great group with a lot of potential \u2013 good people. <\/p>\n “I talk about this with my friends and even older players who\u2019ve been traded \u2013 I don\u2019t know if everyone on this team fully realises how good a group we really have.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can get a couple of bad eggs that spoil it, but we don\u2019t have anything close to that. <\/p>\n \u201cThe level of care and the quality of character in our locker room is something that\u2019s really nice to be a part of.<\/p>\n \u201cPersonally, I would love to be here and continue growing with this team \u2013 but like I said, no expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n In the end, the lure of Hollywood and playing alongside Don\u010di\u0107 and Austin Reaves was enough.<\/p>\n Selected with the 20th overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, Thybulle was traded to Philadelphia on draft night and quickly established himself as an elite perimeter defender. <\/p>\n He earned NBA All-Defensive Second Team honours in both 2021 and 2022, finishing 11th in Defensive Player of the Year voting in each of those seasons.<\/p>\n After three-and-a-half seasons with the 76ers, Thybulle was traded to Portland during the 2022-23 campaign, where he has continued to showcase his disruptive defensive style while improving as a three-point shooter. <\/p>\n Through the 2025-26 season, he has appeared in 377 NBA games, averaging 5.0 points, 2.0 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 1.6 steals and 0.8 blocks in 20.6 minutes per game while shooting 43.8% from the field and 34.9% from three-point range.<\/p>\n Matisse Thybulle’s NBA Career: By the Numbers<\/p>\n Season 2019\u20132022PHISG651419.84.7.423.357.6101.61.21.40.70.8<\/p>\n 2020\u20132123PHISG65820.03.9.420.301.4441.91.01.61.10.5<\/p>\n 2021\u20132224PHISG665025.55.7.500.313.7912.31.11.71.10.6<\/p>\n 2022\u20132325PHISF49612.12.7.431.333.7501.30.50.90.30.2<\/p>\n 2022\u20132325PORSG222227.77.4.438.388.6253.51.41.70.80.7<\/p>\n 2023\u20132426PORSF651922.95.4.397.346.7592.11.41.70.80.6<\/p>\n 2024\u20132527PORSG15520.87.5.477.438.4673.51.92.20.60.9<\/p>\n 2025\u20132628PORSG30016.05.8.433.398.8402.00.92.00.50.9<\/p>\n Matisse Thybulle’s Boomers Career: By the Numbers<\/p>\n Year 2021 2023 Total Matisse Thybulle’s 2023 FIBA World Cup: By the Numbers<\/p>\n Game vs FINFirst Round1821\u201341\u201320\u201320\u20130101103+172<\/p>\n vs GERFirst Round1821\u201311\u201310\u201300\u20130000002+42<\/p>\n vs JPNFirst Round1300\u201320\u201300\u201320\u20130111112+11<\/p>\n vs SLOSecond Round1462\u201340\u201302\u201340\u2013000000204<\/p>\n vs GEOSecond Round1041\u201311\u201310\u201302\u20132101001+26<\/p>\n Total-73145\u2013123\u201342\u201382\u201323132110+2415<\/p>\n Average-14.52.81.0\u20132.40.6\u20130.80.4\u20131.60.4\u20130.40.60.20.60.40.22.0+4.83.0<\/p>\n Matisse Thybulle Career Earnings BreakdownTotal Career EarningsPhiladelphia 76ers (2019\u20132023) \u2014 Rookie Deal<\/p>\n 4 years \u2013 $12,513,127<\/p>\n 2019\u201320: $2,582,1602020\u201321: $2,711,2802021\u201322: $2,840,1602022\u201323: $4,379,527<\/p>\n Total (PHI): $12.51M<\/p>\n Portland Trail Blazers (2023\u20132026) \u2014 Second Contract<\/p>\n 3 years \u2013 $33,075,000<\/p>\n 2023\u201324: $10,500,0002024\u201325: $11,025,0002025\u201326: $11,550,000<\/p>\n Total (POR): $33.07M<\/p>\n Matisse Thybulle Availability2023\u201324: 79% availability2024\u201325: 18% availability2025\u201326: 37% availability<\/p>\n 3-year average: ~45% availability<\/p>\n Injury Pattern<\/p>\n 1. Lower body dominant<\/p>\n Ankles (multiple clusters)Knees (recurring)Hip involvement<\/p>\n 2. Compounding injuries<\/p>\n 2024\u201325 = cascading breakdown2025\u201326 = recovery but not stable<\/p>\n 3. Fragmented availability<\/p>\n Not just long injuriesRepeated stop-start interruptions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Boomers bronze medallist Matisse Thybulle joins the Lakers on a one-year USD $3.3 million deal. Australian Boomers bronze…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":812952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-812951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=812951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/69f3debf44ce8413fb0ea102_ed7f2312-44f5-4c88-99f3-f8b546fa05f7.webp\")
Australian Boomers defensive wing Matisse Thybulle dunks the ball. Photo: FIBA.com<\/p>\n
\nAge
\nTeam
\nPos
\nG
\nGS
\nMP
\nPTS
\nFG%
\n3PT%
\nFT%
\nREB
\nAST
\nSTL
\nBLK
\nTOV<\/p>\n
\nEvent
\nGP
\nPPG
\nRPG
\nAPG
\nEFF<\/p>\n
\nTokyo Olympics
\n6
\n7.8
\n3.3
\n2.5
\n13.5<\/p>\n
\nFIBA World Cup
\n5
\n2.8
\n0.6
\n0.2
\n3.0<\/p>\n
\nCareer Avg
\n11
\n5.5
\n2.1
\n1.5
\n8.7<\/p>\n
\nStage
\nMIN
\nPTS
\nFG
\n2PT
\n3PT
\nFT
\nREB
\nAST
\nSTL
\nBLK
\nTO
\nPF
\n+\/-
\nEFF<\/p>\n