Trail Blazers swingman Matisse Thybulle will miss the start of the regular season after undergoing a procedure on Thursday to address inflammation in his right knee, the team announced (via Twitter).
According to the Blazers, Thybulle will resume rehabilitation work on the knee and is expected to be sidelined for three or four weeks.
Thybulle, who was acquired by the Blazers in a trade at the 2023 deadline, appeared in 65 games in his first full season in Portland in 2023/24, making 19 starts and averaging 22.9 minutes per night. His contributions on offense were modest (5.4 PPG on .397/.346/.759 shooting), but he’s a talented, versatile wing defender, having made a pair of All-Defensive Second Teams during his time in Philadelphia.
Even if Thybulle is only out for the next three weeks, he’ll miss the first 10 games of Portland’s season, so the team will need to get by without him on the wing until then. The Blazers will also be without Shaedon Sharpe to open the season due to a shoulder injury.
With Thybulle on the shelf, second-year forward Toumani Camara should play more minutes behind veteran starters Deni Avdija and Jerami Grant, or even alongside them. Camara has impressed during the preseason and was pushing for a bigger role before Thybulle’s injury, as Sean Highkin of The Rose Garden Report details in a Substack article.
Reserves Jabari Walker, Kris Murray, and Dalano Banton are among the other candidates to move up the depth chart in Thybulle’s absence.