There are very few players who have been squeezed out of the NBA while having their skillset go from undervalued to obsolete as quickly as former Los Angeles Lakers center Roy Hibbert.
The seven-footer was acquired by the Lakers in 2015 as a hoped-for defensive fix on a team not known for stopping people, with the coaching staff and front office thinking that Hibbert’s use of verticality could cover up a lot of their woes on the defensive end.
Things didn’t quite work out, as Hibbert’s defense was proven a lot less valuable on the Lakers than it was on a smart and disciplined Pacers team that could force players directly into Hibbert, and he left Los Angeles after one year, bouncing to the Charlotte Hornets and Denver Nuggets before washing out of the league completely as it went small and outran him.