Sixers Zhaire Smith, Matisse Thybulle gearing up for summer league
The 76ers held their first summmer-league practice Monday.
Zhaire Smith and Matisse Thybulle are the headliners of the 76ers’ summer-league roster. Both are defense-first players. Both are expected to be thrust into the Sixers’ regular-season rotation. The biggest difference between the players is their perspective.
“I already know what to expect. I already know how the NBA game is,” Smith said after the Sixers’ first summer-league practice on Monday.
It was around this time last year that Smith, the 16th overall draft pick in 2018, was getting ready to dive into his NBA career. His athleticism shined during the 2018 summer league, but things took a turn. First, it was a fractured foot during workouts in August, then the complications from a sesame allergy that completely changed the path Smith was on.
Smith lost 40 pounds during multiple procedures and his recovery before returning to the court in March with the Delaware Blue Coats. As he was building up his strength to return, he realized that the thing that made him special, his athleticism, had been stripped from him.
Through playing in the G League, getting spotty minutes for the Sixers, and watching their playoff run, Smith worked to regain his strength and learn the ins and outs of the NBA season while being on the sidelines for most of it.
“I know the difference between summer league, regular season, and playoffs, so I know the intensity to bring,” Smith said.
More than just the intensity, Smith also knows the Sixers’ schemes, offensive sets, and defensive rotations. That institutional knowledge is going to help him and gives him a leg up on the rookies who are just learning everything for the first time.
“Today was a great day to get us started to teach these guys the base, the foundation for what we’re going to want them to do these next couple weeks and get them in the right mind-set of how we want to play,” said Connor Johnson, coach of the Blue Coats and the Sixers’ summer team.
Smith’s advanced understanding of what is expected of the Sixers players is something that Thybulle, the 20th pick in this year’s draft, picked up on quickly. So, while Smith is working toward increased growth within his role, already having an understanding of what to expect, Thybulle is just hoping to reach a level of comfort.
“I want to be comfortable with the pace of the game, how physical it is on defense,” he said. “I feel like with comfort comes growth.”
Thybulle is hoping that by the end of summer play, he will be comfortable enough with the Sixers’ system that he can then turn to working on other aspects of his game in more specific ways.
The NBA Summer League will begin play Friday. The Sixers will open against the Milwaukee Bucks at 3:30 p.m. Eastern time.
Both Smith and Thybulle are going into the summer league with different experiences and perspectives, but their expectations are closely aligned. They want to be ready when called upon and be able to do the little things that can help the Sixers win.