Portland, Oregon – March 26: Matias Thieboul #4 of the Portland Trail Blazers runs on the court ,
Restricted free agent wing Matisse Thybulle isn’t going anywhere. On Thursday morning, the Portland Trail Blazers matched the offer sheet extended to Thybulle by the Dallas Mavericks. According to ESPN’s Adrian WojnarowskiDallas offered him a three-year, $33 million contract with a player option for a third year of $11.5 million.
According to ESPN’s Bobby Marks, the Mavericks offered Thybulle a very favorable deal. With a player option for a third year, Thybulle would receive a 15% trade bonus, $2.6 million to be paid 14 days after the contract is approved by the league, and $2.6 million on October 1.
Thybule always intended to sign an offer sheet from Dallas. However, since he is a restricted free agent, the Blazers have the right of first refusal, allowing them to match and make an extended second team offer to him. Portland had no intention of letting him go.
From the early days of free agency, opposing teams knew how Portland felt about Thiebull. NBA insider Mark Stein told The Blazers and the Boston Celtics, who recently dealt Grant Williams to Dallas in a sign-and-trade, were stating their intentions to match any offers for their restricted free agents to both teams.
Stein wrote, “The Blazers and Celtics are sending signals behind the scenes to interested teams that they intend to match any offer sheets for Thiebul or Williams, respectively.”
Last season, Thiboul appeared in 22 games with the Blazers after being traded to Portland in a massive four-team deal by the Philadelphia 76ers. He averaged 7.4 points, 3.5 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.7 steals in 27.7 minutes.
Dallas was interested in signing Thybulle for their perimeter defense, where he is known to be a disruptive presence. His career averages are 4.6 points, 2.0 rebounds, 1.0 assists, 1.5 steals and 0.8 blocks.
Although the Mavericks did not beat out Thiebull, they have all or most of their mid-tier offseason to sign other free agents – depending on how it structures its existing contractual agreements with the free agents. Is.
The Mavericks still need to plug holes on the perimeter, especially after trading Reggie Bullock to the San Antonio Spurs as part of a three-team deal that added him to Williams.