NBA Rumors: Kings "Monitoring" Sixers Trade Candidate

The Sacramento Kings, at 28-21 and in the 3rd seed in the Western Conference, are off to their best start since, well... a long time ago. They were a mover at last year's trade deadline, dealing Tyrese Haliburton for Domantas Sabonis in one of those rare trades that worked out wonderfully for both teams. 

Now the Kings are ready to do some more roster shuffling to solidify their playoff push. According to NBA Insider Marc Stein:

Sacramento is said to be monitoring the availability of Philadelphia (76ers)'s Matisse Thybulle as the Kings, unexpectedly holding the West’s No. 3 seed after a league-record 16 consecutive seasons out of the playoffs, ponder the pursuit of a more defensive-minded option on the perimeter.

Thybulle, 25, does qualify as a defensive stopper on the perimeter. His offense is practically non-existent, but that's not his game. The Kings have plenty of scoring, and if head coach Mike Brown had his druthers, they'd start to concentrate on defense a little more:

“We’ve got to be able to hang our hat a little bit on the defensive end of the floor instead of thinking we’re gonna be able to outscore guys, and right now we’re not getting it done defensively,” Brown said this past weekend. “So, to me, that side of the ball is impacting us more than our offense.”

Thybulle's defensive rating of 109 this season would rank him 8th in the NBA if he had played enough minutes to qualify, just behind Rudy Gobert, and ahead of Brook Lopez. But Sixers coach Doc Rivers hasn't been comfortable playing Thybulle more than an average of 12 minutes per game. He could certainly use the change of scenery himself. 

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