3 reasons why Cavs should consider Matisse Thybulle in 2019 NBA Draft

The Cleveland Cavaliers seem to be moving in the right direction, and Washington’s Matisse Thybulle is another player that can keep them on that path in the coming years, and the Cavs should not overlook him with the Houston Rockets’ first-round pick they acquired in the 2019 NBA Draft.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have not had the season that they would’ve hoped for going into 2018-19, and we’ve nailed down the reasons for that time after time. The team’s best player, Kevin Love, missed 50 games due to reported toe surgery.

Former head coach, Tyronn Lue, was fired after the season’s first six games, and current head coach, Larry Drew, has had all sorts of injuries to deal with over the course of the year, to go along with the mostly lack of Love.

Veterans have come and gone, and that’s put a huge workload on rookie point guard Collin Sexton and young forward Cedi Osman, who has played his first considerable NBA minutes-share this season.

The rough situation the Cavaliers have been in has led to many losses, and they have a realistic chance of having a top three pick in the 2019 NBA Draft as a result. Even with that being the case, though, there’s reason to be optimistic.

Sexton and Osman, as plenty of KJG contributors have emphasized, have really picked up their play lately, and in particular, since Love has gotten to play a bigger minutes-share post-All-Star break for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

There’s been some tanking teams on the schedule for Cleveland, which does help the numbers some, but the Cavs did just destroy the Toronto Raptors (who have the NBA’s second-best record, per NBA.com) on Monday night, and lost in the last two minutes against the Philadelphia 76ers on the road Tuesday night while not having Larry Nance Jr., Matthew Dellavedova and Tristan Thompson, all due to reported injuries.

The biggest focus for the Cavaliers in the coming years (and hopefully to return to relevance in the near future) has to be improving defensively, though. According to Basketball Reference, the Cavs will end up having the worst defensive rating ever recorded for a season, since the statistic has been recorded.

A player in the 2019 NBA Draft that I would love for Cleveland to draft with the Houston Rockets’ first-round pick they acquired via the previously mentioned three-team trade involving the Sacramento Kings acquiring Alec Burks is Washington’s Matisse Thybulle.

Here’s the first reason why Cleveland general manager Koby Altman and company should strongly consider drafting Thybulle, with that being his defensive prowess.