Matisse Thybulle Receives Trail Blazers Contract Qualifying Offer; Will Become RFA

The Portland Trail Blazers have extended a qualifying offer to swingman Matisse Thybulle, making him a restricted free agent.

General manager Joe Cronin announced the move on Wednesday.

As a restricted free agent, Thybulle will be eligible to sign an offer sheet from another club when free agency officially begins on Friday at 6 p.m. ET. The Blazers will have the right to match the offer sheet to retain him or allow him to leave.

The 26-year-old split the 2022-23 season with the Philadelphia 76ers and Blazers. He showed improvement in Portland after a miserable first half with the Sixers, averaging 7.4 points and 3.5 rebounds while shooting 38.8 percent from the floor in 22 games with the Blazers.

Thybulle opened up in March about his improved play after the trade, saying he felt like he was playing in "fear" for much of his tenure with the Sixers.

"Any player that's playing out of a place of fear is going to struggle. Like there's going to just be friction in everything you try to do," Thybulle said, per Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer: "But when you play for a place of just discipline and receptiveness to what the game's giving and what you are reading from it. I think there's a lot more opportunity. "And for me, specifically, I feel like there was a lot more fear-based play in Philadelphia as opposed to what I'm doing here in Portland."

The Blazers afforded Thybulle more room to expand his game, and he flashed a capability to emerge as a potential 3-and-D player.

Few have questioned the Washington product's defensive ability; he's a two-time All-Defensive selection. That said, he spent much of his time in Philadelphia as an offensive liability and would be unplayable at times in the playoffs.

As it stands, this isn't a particularly risky move for the Blazers given the upside. As long as Thybulle doesn't receive a surprisingly rich offer in free agency, it wouldn't be a shock to see him back in Portland because the team is in need of defensive stoppers if it intends to bring Damian Lillard back.