{"id":613043,"date":"2026-02-20T05:31:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T05:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/613043\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T05:31:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T05:31:00","slug":"blazers-thybulle-murray-nearing-returns-sharpe-still-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/613043\/","title":{"rendered":"Blazers\u2019 Thybulle, Murray Nearing Returns; Sharpe Still Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trail Blazers wings Matisse Thybulle<\/a> and Kris Murray<\/a> were both full participants in practices on Wednesday and Thursday, writes Joe Freeman of The Oregonian<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve had two intense days here,\u201d interim head coach Tiago Splitter said Thursday at the Blazers\u2019 practice facility in Tualatin. \u201cWe\u2019ll see how (they feel) tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both players are officially questionable for Friday\u2019s contest against Denver (Twitter link<\/a>).<\/p>\n

A two-time All-Defensive selection, Thybulle has been plagued by injuries the past two seasons. He was limited to just 15 appearances in 2024\/25 due to knee and ankle issues, and has only played four games thus far in \u201925\/26, last suiting up on October 29.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old guard\/forward underwent thumb surgery<\/a> on Oct. 31, which was expected to sideline him for at least four-to-six weeks. After that injury healed, he has been plagued<\/a> by right knee tendinopathy.<\/p>\n

Largely due to his limited availability, there has been speculation that Thybulle could be a buyout candidate, but that seems unlikely now that he\u2019s close to returning.<\/p>\n

Third-year forward Murray, meanwhile, has missed Portland\u2019s last 19 games due to a lumbar strain<\/a> in his lower back. He last played on Jan. 5.<\/p>\n

As Sean Highkin of The Rose Garden Report tweets<\/a>, the Blazers have relied heavily on Sidy Cissoko<\/a>, who is no longer eligible to play after reaching<\/a> his 50-game active limit, and Caleb Love<\/a>, who has five games left. While it\u2019s possible one or both of those two-way standouts could be promoted before the season ends, the team likely doesn\u2019t feel any urgency to do so now with Thybulle and Murray on the verge of returning, Highkin notes.<\/p>\n

Although Portland\u2019s roster is as healthy as it has been in months, starting shooting guard Shaedon Sharpe<\/a> remains out with a left calf strain and his return doesn\u2019t appear imminent, per Freeman.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t practice,\u201d Splitter said. \u201cWe\u2019re still evaluating how long he\u2019s going to be out, but for the near future, he\u2019s going to be out for a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trail Blazers wings Matisse Thybulle and Kris Murray were both full participants in practices on Wednesday and Thursday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3784],"tags":[7,601,11691,7212,7211,6,687,471,3967,4426,12018,15840,1617],"class_list":{"0":"post-613043","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-portland-trail-blazers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-blazers","10":"tag-caleb-love","11":"tag-kris-murray","12":"tag-matisse-thybulle","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-portland","15":"tag-portland-trail-blazers","16":"tag-portlandtrailblazers","17":"tag-shaedon-sharpe","18":"tag-sidy-cissoko","19":"tag-tiago-splitter","20":"tag-trail-blazers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116101325226510566","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}