Speaker 1: Just about every NBA rookie experiences his share of ups
Speaker 1: and down. Here's a steal by Batist in Asiakaba Slammatiste
Speaker 1: Bible rocks the round. What a play. The rookie is
Speaker 1: doing it at both ends of the poor. But for
Speaker 1: Matiste Thible, lately, the trends have definitely been of the
Speaker 1: upward variety with Matis. The scouting and the eye test
Speaker 1: was always that he was a really good defender. So
Speaker 1: the fact that the numbers are backing that up, you know,
Speaker 1: it really just reinforces the immediate impact he's been able
Speaker 1: to have on a championship team. ESPN NBA writer Tim
Speaker 1: Bontemps recently did a feature on this year's twentieth overall pick,
Speaker 1: and he joins me to talk about it on this
Speaker 1: episode of the broadcast. How are you out there, seventy
Speaker 1: six ers pod people. I hope you are preparing, excited,
Speaker 1: pumped for what will be a great holiday week for
Speaker 1: you coming up. I'm excited. You know, there's the time
Speaker 1: for family, friends, grub, some other stuff, all those things.
Speaker 1: The seventy sixers. Yes, they have some immedia games on
Speaker 1: the horizon this coming weekend and early next week. But
Speaker 1: I cannot freaking wait for the Christmas Day game at
Speaker 1: the Center against the Milwaukee Bucks, likely the top two
Speaker 1: teams in the Eastern Conference going at it to close
Speaker 1: out the first third of the season should be fantastic.
Speaker 1: But as for matters of the present, we are going
Speaker 1: to speak about a guy who has been really good
Speaker 1: for the seventy sixers as of late, and his name
Speaker 1: is Matise Thible. Tim Bontemps wrote an article about Matise
Speaker 1: that ran on ESPN on Wednesday. Suggest that you google it,
Speaker 1: find it and check it out. But before we sit
Speaker 1: down with Tim, a reminder that to subscribe to the podcast,
Speaker 1: all you gotta do is head to anywhere you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts. It could be Spotify, Pandora, maybe Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: Google Pods, tune in Stitcher, soundclous, type in seventy Sixers
Speaker 1: podcast and that should take you to our feed. Two
Speaker 1: days after one of the toughest losses of the season,
Speaker 1: the seventy six ers twenty point defeat at Brooklyn, this
Speaker 1: past Sunday, the team was back at it at the
Speaker 1: training complex in Camden, and at the conclusion of practice
Speaker 1: to Bias Harris spoke. He was asked who on the
Speaker 1: team has impressed you the most so far this season?
Speaker 1: He paused, thought about it, then gave his answer. Batistible
Speaker 1: said the veteran What is it about the twenty two
Speaker 1: year old Thible that Harris thinks it so impressive? You know,
Speaker 1: I would say his defense and then visibility as a
Speaker 1: young player to find his way on the floor. You know,
Speaker 1: I think you beginning the season we roll with him
Speaker 1: for a little bit, then you know he coached one
Speaker 1: a little different direction and now to find himself back
Speaker 1: on the floor. It's Thible. As Harris said, it is
Speaker 1: currently enjoying a strong stretch and recently he seems to
Speaker 1: be on the tip of everyone's tongue. In The Inquiry,
Speaker 1: which ran a feature on him last Sunday, and as
Speaker 1: I mentioned on a Wednesday, the morning of the seventy
Speaker 1: six ers match up with the Miami Heat, ESPN published
Speaker 1: a story about him. Now before both pieces came out,
Speaker 1: and this is the God's on his truth fingers crossed
Speaker 1: a cross my heart. We here at the Old Broadcast
Speaker 1: had planned to focus on the versatile rookie for this
Speaker 1: week's episode of the Pod, but then when Tim Bontemps's
Speaker 1: piece ran we felt the timing could not have been
Speaker 1: more perfect to invite Tim to appear as our guests
Speaker 1: on the pod. And here he is. Tim. How good
Speaker 1: did you say, Matisse Thible is playing at this moment,
Speaker 1: twenty seven games into his professional career. I would say,
Speaker 1: as Brett Brown has said repeatedly, he's progressing well, right.
Speaker 1: I think that's that's the way you need to look
Speaker 1: at it. I mean, coming into the Sea, I was
Speaker 1: very high on Matisse. I thought that he was a
Speaker 1: guy that needed to be a key piece off the
Speaker 1: bench for this team called April fifteenth, when the playoffs start.
Speaker 1: It's not usually the way you look at a rookie,
Speaker 1: especially for a contending, you know, championship contending team like
Speaker 1: the Sixers hope to be. But they they traded up
Speaker 1: in the draft to get him as a four year
Speaker 1: guy out of Washington because they had the expectation that
Speaker 1: he could be an impact player right away for them.
Speaker 1: And I think, you know, especially over this past month
Speaker 1: since he got benched in Denver and he kind of
Speaker 1: has worked his way back into the rotation, I think
Speaker 1: you've really started to see a lot of the things
Speaker 1: that the Sixers hoped he could be and is already
Speaker 1: proving to be a really essential part of what they're
Speaker 1: trying to do. Give me some stats that stand out
Speaker 1: about him too. Yeah. I mean, look, coming into this season,
Speaker 1: everybody knew who Matisse was going to be had the
Speaker 1: potential to be a really good defensive player. But the
Speaker 1: fact that the numbers already show he's one of the
Speaker 1: more effective defensive players in the league this quick, you know,
Speaker 1: is a really good sign for where he's headed. With Matisse,
Speaker 1: the scouting and the eye test was always that he
Speaker 1: was a really good defender. So the fact that the
Speaker 1: numbers are backing that up, you know, it really just
Speaker 1: reinforces again the immediate impact he's been able to have
Speaker 1: on a championship team, which is not something that rookies
Speaker 1: are usually able to do. And now we're starting to
Speaker 1: see some steady three point shooting two. I don't know
Speaker 1: what exactly his three point shooting percentages, but last I
Speaker 1: knew it was over forty percent. And if you told
Speaker 1: the Sixers that he was going to shoot even thirty
Speaker 1: five percent from three on a decent volume coming into
Speaker 1: the season, they would have been overjoyed. Because the thing
Speaker 1: about Matisse coming in was everybody knew he was going
Speaker 1: to be a potentially dominant defensive player, right Anybody who
Speaker 1: watched him play it for a second at Washington saw
Speaker 1: he was incredibly gift at that end of the court.
Speaker 1: But the thing people wondered about was was he going
Speaker 1: to be enough of an offensive threat to stay on
Speaker 1: the court. The fact that Matis has come out and
Speaker 1: is making the shots that he is now and as
Speaker 1: comfortable and confident as he looks taken three, five tries
Speaker 1: the three and nails. Yes, he is an elite defender,
Speaker 1: but he's shown the ability and really working on a
Speaker 1: three point shot and he shot it well. The percentage
Speaker 1: almost doesn't matter if he If he's looking this confident
Speaker 1: and is willing to take these kinds of shots and
Speaker 1: kind of stay within himself and not turn the ball over,
Speaker 1: that's all the Sixers really need him to do. And
Speaker 1: he's you know, if he keeps this up there, like
Speaker 1: I said, they're going to be absolutely thrilled with the
Speaker 1: production they're gonna get. That's a surface of a view
Speaker 1: of the Matisse Thyble story at this point, But I
Speaker 1: want to go back a little bit farther. You've been
Speaker 1: around the seventy six Ers for a while now throughout
Speaker 1: last season, a lot more this year where the franchise
Speaker 1: left off the end of twenty nineteen following the playoff exit,
Speaker 1: Specifically the front office, what did they deem to be
Speaker 1: their mandate going into the offseason to build a championship team.
Speaker 1: Definitely disappointed right now we didn't reach our goal, but
Speaker 1: it's only going to fuel us for this offseason. In
Speaker 1: the summer, We're all gonna get better. I'm gonna get better,
Speaker 1: and I look forward to that challenge. We have a
Speaker 1: great plan in place to make a deep run next year.
Speaker 1: If you look at the way the Sixers have built
Speaker 1: this team, going out and getting out Horford, getting Josh Richardson,
Speaker 1: the trade they made last year for Tobias, locking up
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons, they have clearly built a team that is
Speaker 1: ready to win now. And normally when you have a
Speaker 1: guy like Joelle who's a twenty five ish right and
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons, who's twenty two twenty three, you'd be thinking
Speaker 1: on a longer term horizon. But I think I give
Speaker 1: the Sixers credit for saying, look, we have a chance
Speaker 1: to win right now. We're going to push our chips
Speaker 1: in and see where it goes. And I think in
Speaker 1: today's NBA, where everybody's trying to do the same thing,
Speaker 1: I have a lot of respect for Elton brand in
Speaker 1: the front office here for going out and doing something different.
Speaker 1: When those five guys are on the court and they're
Speaker 1: locked in, you can see the ceiling for this team
Speaker 1: is extraordinarily high. Championship obviously, then is the end goal,
Speaker 1: and going for it with a starting lineup that features
Speaker 1: five players with all league potential. If you turn back
Speaker 1: the clock to the spring, at the beginning of the summer,
Speaker 1: where do you think the front office of the seventy
Speaker 1: sixers felt the twenty nineteen draft picks would factor into
Speaker 1: this whole grand plan. Look, they promised Matis really early, right,
Speaker 1: he went to the combine and shut it down, and
Speaker 1: everybody wasn't quite sure where he got a promise from,
Speaker 1: but everybody knew we had one, and the Sixers, you know,
Speaker 1: clearly zeroed in on him from the beginning. Elton, what
Speaker 1: made you think he had to trade up to number twenty.
Speaker 1: It sounds like you guys were pretty locked in on
Speaker 1: Matiz the whole time. There's actually some players we were
Speaker 1: looking at you know, Matisse was the one that I
Speaker 1: felt we had to go get. It's like, Okay, we
Speaker 1: need to move up and get this because uh, you know,
Speaker 1: he's that talented and that he fits a need that
Speaker 1: we need to fill. So that's what we had to
Speaker 1: fill it. And I think when you look at where
Speaker 1: their team is at, again, this is a guy who's
Speaker 1: a four year college player, who's an expel defensive talent
Speaker 1: who they thought they could, you know, work on his
Speaker 1: jump shot a little bit and get him to come
Speaker 1: in here and immediately produce. It's very hard for teams
Speaker 1: playing at this level to have rookies walk in and
Speaker 1: be good. It's just really difficult because the learning curve
Speaker 1: in the NBA to become a good player is very steep.
Speaker 1: And you know, people generally freak out about the rookie
Speaker 1: class every year and these guys are good and why
Speaker 1: are these guys bad and whatever, And that's what's made
Speaker 1: this year's group of players on these teams that are
Speaker 1: good right now stand out to me because you do
Speaker 1: have guys like Matisse and Tyler Hero and PJ. Washington
Speaker 1: even in Charlotte who's played well. You have some of
Speaker 1: these guys on teams that are trying to make the
Speaker 1: playoffs and make an impact immediately getting into big roles,
Speaker 1: which is not is not a common thing in the NBA.
Speaker 1: The other thing that made the Thible acquisition so fascinating,
Speaker 1: at least to me, was the team the seventy six
Speaker 1: Ers did the deal with to get him. We are
Speaker 1: at pig number twenty in the first round. The Boston
Speaker 1: Celtics are on the clock right now before the pick
Speaker 1: comes in, Let's check with Woads. Right now, woj, could
Speaker 1: this pick be on the move Reese? Boston is going
Speaker 1: to be selecting for the Sixers. Here batist Thibal from
Speaker 1: the University of Washington, a wing player. Philadelphia will send
Speaker 1: the Celtics number twenty four and thirty three in this
Speaker 1: draft for Thibal. And this wasn't the first time the
Speaker 1: Sixers and their nemesis, the Celtics did a draft night trade.
Speaker 1: Did this add to the intrigue to the story in
Speaker 1: your eyes? Tim? I mean, I think it's impossible to
Speaker 1: avoid the history there, right. I mean, these are two
Speaker 1: blood rival teams going back for sixty years or seventy years.
Speaker 1: And then you also have the fact that you know
Speaker 1: they made the trade for Jason Tatum two years ago, right,
Speaker 1: the Jayson Tatum Marco Folks trade. Like that, all that
Speaker 1: stuff hangs over all this stuff. You know, they're teams
Speaker 1: that I mean, we're both at this game the other
Speaker 1: day in Austin. I was thinking to myself during the
Speaker 1: game that was one of my favorite games to watch
Speaker 1: all year, the awesome game. It would be amazing to
Speaker 1: see those two teams playing in the playoffs again. And
Speaker 1: you better believe it, if Matisse becomes a real player,
Speaker 1: that's something that's going to kind of always hang over.
Speaker 1: So that's gonna be the latest thing to kind of
Speaker 1: hang over this matchup, right. I mean, you could see
Speaker 1: scenarios where Matis is guarding Jason take them a lot
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, and you know it's there. There are
Speaker 1: situations where you could easily re engineer that. And Mattis
Speaker 1: is in Boston and Jason's here, so you know, it's
Speaker 1: all that stuff is fun and it definitely adds to
Speaker 1: the story. And there's no question that the history between
Speaker 1: these two franchises is gonna, you know, connect them with
Speaker 1: this Matise thing for quite a long time. We go
Speaker 1: back to the summer League five. It was pretty good,
Speaker 1: average round eleven and a half points for rebounds, had
Speaker 1: a couple of steals per game and assists as well.
Speaker 1: He then in training camp really seemed to turn some heads.
Speaker 1: What was the first impression that you remember having a
Speaker 1: Matisse style? Was there a game? Was there a moment?
Speaker 1: I was sitting with a scout during the Pistons preseason
Speaker 1: game and Matisse made two or three plays in that
Speaker 1: game that were big time, big time plays. How many
Speaker 1: steals does he have tonight? Already He's got four, He's
Speaker 1: got three of them. I think he blew up I
Speaker 1: think two different plays and stole the ball. Just was
Speaker 1: really really good, and you could see even in the preseason,
Speaker 1: Like like I said, going back to the summer when
Speaker 1: he got drafted, everybody knew he was a great defensive player.
Speaker 1: But to see him walk in and immediately have the
Speaker 1: impact he had and be able to blow up plays
Speaker 1: and you know, pick guy's pockets and steal the ball
Speaker 1: and block shots and just reek havoc all over the
Speaker 1: court was really impressive. And I will follow that up
Speaker 1: with in the opener against the Celtics, it was fascinating
Speaker 1: to watch him guard Kemba Walker. He comes in the game,
Speaker 1: he instantly gets put on Kemba Walker, one of the
Speaker 1: best guards in the league. Kemba gets two fouls on
Speaker 1: him in eleven seconds. After a couple of minutes on him.
Speaker 1: He immediately goes with the bench right and like, well,
Speaker 1: here's the rookies, welcome to the NBA. Moment he asked
Speaker 1: to guard an NBA guard. Then he comes back in
Speaker 1: later in the game and it was like watching the
Speaker 1: raptors in Jurassic Park, like start to figure stuff out.
Speaker 1: He like started to watch Kenba's moves. He stole the
Speaker 1: ball off him once, he blocked him once. Remember what
Speaker 1: I said earlier about not trying to make a great
Speaker 1: play from behind, Forget everything I said. Like, that's the
Speaker 1: thing that's really fascinating to be watching him as that
Speaker 1: he gets out on the court and he processes stuff
Speaker 1: so fast and picks stuff up so fast that he's
Speaker 1: like learning stuff on the fly with these guys, and
Speaker 1: you know, you can just see the potential there for
Speaker 1: him to be just a truly, you know, really impactful,
Speaker 1: potentially dominant wing defender, which is just a really rare
Speaker 1: thing to find in today's league. So That's why the
Speaker 1: three point shot with him is so critical. Um, if
Speaker 1: he can, if he can consistently shoot the ball and
Speaker 1: be just just some kind of a threat for where
Speaker 1: teams have to pay attention to him, He's going to
Speaker 1: be a really, really good player for a really long time.
Speaker 1: How much do you think the early part of Thible's
Speaker 1: relative success has had to do with the environment he's
Speaker 1: in right now, the general setting, his skill set that
Speaker 1: he's had both naturally and also worked on to develop,
Speaker 1: and then the aptitude part of it. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think it's a combination of everything. Right, Tobias after the
Speaker 1: first game made that comment where reminded him of Kauai. No,
Speaker 1: not at all. Technically, he guard one and four, so
Speaker 1: you can really slop him in pretty much anywhere on
Speaker 1: a basketball. But I've not seen him looking come in
Speaker 1: with his defensive skills. So the only guy I would say,
Speaker 1: it's like Kawhi come in as a would everybody Knill
Speaker 1: be a top defender. Nobody I think realistically thinks he's
Speaker 1: going to turn into Kawhi. But like I think he
Speaker 1: could be a more athletic version of Bruce Balling, Right,
Speaker 1: that's kind of who I thought he could be Bruce
Speaker 1: Bawen was a really really important player for a championship
Speaker 1: level team, right, and someone who Brett Brown references that's right.
Speaker 1: And so if you know, if you're an elite level
Speaker 1: role player, you look really good on really good teams.
Speaker 1: If you're out there against a team like the Celtics
Speaker 1: and you make a couple of plays against Kemba Walker,
Speaker 1: then after the game, people go, hey, Matissa's out there
Speaker 1: against Kemba Walker. He made a couple of plays in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter. It helped us win the game, and
Speaker 1: then it stands out more. Right. So I don't know
Speaker 1: if his development would necessarily be different somewhere else, but
Speaker 1: also it certainly helps when you're in a structured, good
Speaker 1: team environment and you have talent around you that allows
Speaker 1: you to just focus, like, Hey, I'm gonna walk go
Speaker 1: out on the court. I gotta make threes and I
Speaker 1: gotta guard the hell out of somebody, and if I
Speaker 1: do those two things, I'm gonna play. I don't think
Speaker 1: there's any question that helps those guys a lot. Not surprisingly,
Speaker 1: a linear path, Thible's rookie campaign has not entirely been
Speaker 1: you reference the ups and downs that any rookie, regardless
Speaker 1: of where they're selected or what team they played for
Speaker 1: tens to experience. And that's kind of where your story
Speaker 1: that ran on ESPN the day before the seventy six
Speaker 1: He's played in the the Miami Heat began. Look, Mati Matisse
Speaker 1: played in a two three zone at Washington a lot
Speaker 1: of the time under Mike Hopkins, who was a Jim
Speaker 1: Beheim disciple, right, and he kind of went around and
Speaker 1: just freelanced a lot right, blew up, play, stole the ball,
Speaker 1: made blocks like he was kind of like a free safety.
Speaker 1: And he came to the NBA and he tried to
Speaker 1: do the same stuff. He admitted as much. And he
Speaker 1: like thought he could just come in and like run
Speaker 1: around and try to make plays and not really worried
Speaker 1: about who was guarding. And in the NBA, you can't
Speaker 1: leave decent shooters, right, and college guys just miss all
Speaker 1: the time. He doesn't really matter. But if you leave
Speaker 1: just some average two point shooter, if you leave them
Speaker 1: wide open, they're gonna make that shot most of the time.
Speaker 1: And so Matisse would run around and try to make
Speaker 1: plays and give up threes, or he would come flying
Speaker 1: down an offense and try to like jump in the
Speaker 1: air and try to make a pass and turn the
Speaker 1: ball over. And so there was after he initially got
Speaker 1: that brief burst of minutes, he then had to sit
Speaker 1: down for a while and kind of watch a bit
Speaker 1: and get it beaten into his head that listen, if
Speaker 1: you're gonna play, you need to do again. You need
Speaker 1: to take what you're supposed to do and not do
Speaker 1: other things. You takes a long life to tease a
Speaker 1: young guy and get to the end. How after DNN
Speaker 1: limitation of say how much responsibility do you feel as
Speaker 1: to stay in his air and saying that this is
Speaker 1: a punishment, this is just part of the season. This
Speaker 1: is how much of that as the comfortable I understanding?
Speaker 1: This is what I think it stems from me. First,
Speaker 1: It's really, you know, high level type of team. It's
Speaker 1: it's part of life in the league. You know. No,
Speaker 1: nobody's apologetic about that conversation. It's just a very direct,
Speaker 1: honest conversation. And I think you've seen since then he's
Speaker 1: become much more, much more disciplined with the ball. On offense,
Speaker 1: He's not really freelancing around. He basically is a catch
Speaker 1: and choo guy, which is what he should be. And
Speaker 1: on defense, he's done a much better job of staying
Speaker 1: within the system and doing what he's supposed to do.
Speaker 1: And then you know, if he gets an opportunity, sure,
Speaker 1: jump out and try to make a steal, but don't
Speaker 1: try to do it every single play and just leave
Speaker 1: guys scrambling around behind you all the time, because that's
Speaker 1: how you end up staying on the bench. In the
Speaker 1: month it passed from when he was going through a
Speaker 1: period when he was not in the rotation as frequently
Speaker 1: as we saw, and even the first week of the season. Heck,
Speaker 1: he even started game number two of the year when
Speaker 1: the seventy Sixers played Detroit to now where he's coming
Speaker 1: off games like the one he had against Toronto, scored
Speaker 1: twenty points, the thirteen point after against the Denver Nuggets,
Speaker 1: he was on the floor down the stretch against the
Speaker 1: Boston Celtics when the Sixers wont at Ted Garden. Is
Speaker 1: it just a matter of being able to observe and
Speaker 1: learn and adapt in a guy like this is case
Speaker 1: from what you've been able to tell him the reporting
Speaker 1: you did. Yeah, I mean, look, I think he's certainly,
Speaker 1: he's certainly done a great job and again like his
Speaker 1: skill set translates very well to being out there in
Speaker 1: key moments because you can put him out there and
Speaker 1: he can guard a guy. I think he's been I
Speaker 1: think he's been really he's been really, really good. I
Speaker 1: don't think there's any way to argue that. And I
Speaker 1: think that you kind of if you look at the
Speaker 1: way this is playing out. If he just keeps doing
Speaker 1: what he's doing now, taking the right shots, playing within
Speaker 1: the system, he's gonna be out there in big moments.
Speaker 1: You have that three at the b and there were
Speaker 1: some all stars around you sort of pecking you on
Speaker 1: and being excited for you. Will you step back? What
Speaker 1: does that feel like to have guys at this talent
Speaker 1: level be so excited for and reliance on you? And
Speaker 1: that's something that I've I really find myself thinking about
Speaker 1: a lot, Like if even just like six months ago,
Speaker 1: if you would told me I'd be in the position
Speaker 1: I'm in today, it would have been really hard for
Speaker 1: me to believe you. I think I'm incredibly blessed. I'm
Speaker 1: so grateful and to have the guys that we have
Speaker 1: on this team and to have the opportunity that I have,
Speaker 1: There's been nothing so of a blessing. I look at
Speaker 1: their roster, I think he's the sixth best player on
Speaker 1: the team. I think he has to be a key
Speaker 1: part of this rotation if this team wants to win
Speaker 1: the title, and they have more work to do to
Speaker 1: add another piece or two, because I don't think their
Speaker 1: bench is deep enough. But I do think that if
Speaker 1: you look at where his development is, it's right on
Speaker 1: track with what Brett keeps saying, which is, when I
Speaker 1: get to April fifteenth, is this guy ready to go
Speaker 1: in the playoffs? So for a guy like Matisse, he
Speaker 1: needs to spend the next four or five months getting
Speaker 1: to the point where if he has an open shot
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, teams have to respect him and he
Speaker 1: can knock some of them down. If he can do
Speaker 1: that and stick doing the defensive stuff that he's doing,
Speaker 1: the Sixers are going to have had a hell of
Speaker 1: a draft pick and they're going to have a chance
Speaker 1: to make the run they want to. All things the
Speaker 1: seventy Sixers hope, indeed will come to fruition. Tim Bontemp's
Speaker 1: great piece on ESPN this past week about Matisse Stable,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for taking the time to join the
Speaker 1: pot no worries. Man hap me to do it. Tim's
Speaker 1: handle on Twitter is at tim Bond Temps and he
Speaker 1: is around the seventy six ers NonStop, tracking the team
Speaker 1: every step of the way of this season. Hey, hope
Speaker 1: you have a terrific, outstanding holiday coming up this week.
Speaker 1: If we don't speak before then, but be on the lookout.
Speaker 1: The hope fingers crossed is to get an episode, a
Speaker 1: holiday themed episode, out before that point in time. All right,
Speaker 1: take care, see it