The Oklahoma City Thunder saw a cornucopia of players pass through their organization over the last decade as they made the transition from being Russell Westbrook's team to Chris Paul's team to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's team. One of those players, Zavier Simpson, made a very brief stop - and has now signed with a new team.
Let's take a trip down memory lane to remember who Zavier Simpson was and where he is ending up.
The 2021-22 Oklahoma City Thunder were at the nadir of their rebuild. A rookie Josh Giddey was getting all the playing time he could handle, project big Aleksej Pokusevski played in 61 games, and names like Theo Maledon and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl were heavily involved. The team won 24 games that season and positioned themselves to draft Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams in the following draft.
The player who led the team in minutes per game that season was not Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (he was fourth) nor Lu Dort, Giddey or anyone else who was a part of the team's core. Instead, it was a group of players who appeared in a stretch of games late in the season as the Thunder fully embraced the tank.
Atop that list, averaging a mind-boggling 43.5 minutes per game in four appearances, was former Michigan point guard Zavier Simpson.
The 6'0" Simpson played four years at Michigan, leading the Big Ten in assists in his senior season and finishing as a two-time All-Big Ten selection. He went undrafted in 2020 and briefly joined the Los Angeles Lakers, who waived him ahead of the season. He spent that season in the G League with the Oklahoma City Blue, where the Thunder got their first good look at him.
He joined OKC for Training Camp the next year, was waived and then rejoined the Blue. It wasn't until the last week of the season that the bottom-dwelling Thunder called him up, signing Simpson to a 10-day contract for the final four games of the season.
They gave Simpson all the minutes and on-ball reps that he could want in those four games, and he showed off the pass-first mentality and defensive toughness that made him successful at Michigan. He averaged 11 points, 7.5 assists and 5.3 rebounds per game, and even chipped in five steals and four blocks.
The Thunder didn't bring Simpson back after that year; he bounced around the G League for a few more seasons, played seven games for the Memphis Grizzlies in 2023-24, and last year played in Romania and was the Finals MVP as he led his team to the championship.
Zavier Simpson has a new home
While his impressive performance in a lower league in Romania last year did not net Simpson an NBA deal, it did give him a pathway to a larger platform and payday this summer. He signed with the Ningbo Rockets in China and will likely play a prominent role this year.
Simpson will join a couple of fellow former college stars and fringe NBA players in Ningbo, as the Rockets signed both onetime USF star Tacko Fall and former Kansas Kayhawk and Sacramento Kings guard Frank Mason to contracts this summer.
At 6'0" it's an uphill battle for Simpson to crack into a full roster spot in the league. Perhaps he will continue his quest to make it into the NBA, or perhaps he will embrace an international career moving forward. Locked-in Thunder fans may just remember Simpson and his brief but action-packed time with Oklahoma City a few seasons ago.