Hasheem Thabeet played in Oklahoma City the past two seasons, but we use the word “played” here very loosely.
The wiry 7'3" center wasn’t much more than a big body to plug in for some very occasional minutes, and amassed just 27 points and 40 rebounds in total over 23 regular season appearances with the Thunder last year.
You can’t teach size, as the saying goes, and seven-footers will continue to get serious looks from NBA teams until they have proven to be completely useless more than once. Thabeet isn’t quite there yet, and has received the most basic of chances to catch on somewhere else.
From Marc Stein of ESPN.com:
The Pistons are loaded with size, and have more than 15 players signed to guaranteed contracts for next season. Thabeet doesn’t appear to be someone who should find himself out of the league entirely just yet, but the fit in Detroit doesn’t appear to be a great one, at least on the surface.
Thabeet has played for four NBA teams in his five professional seasons, and holds career averages of 2.2 points and 2.7 rebounds per contest.