Maccabi and Malcolm Thomas are no more

Euroleague competitor Maccabi Tel Aviv and 6-foot-9 power forward Malcolm Thomas have mutually agreed to terminate their contract, the team announced earlier today.

According to team sources, Thomas, who signed a 1+1 agreement with Maccabi on October 2012, had previously requested to opt out of his agreement due to lack of playing time, but was turned down.

People with knowledge of Thomas' frustration report that ahead of Maccabi's home game against Olympiacos, Thomas' agent Aaron Mintz, of Creative Artists Agency (CAA), touched base with Maccabi's head coach David Blatt, expression his client's aggravation. Thomas would then see only 4 minutes of action against the Greeks, recording 1 missed field goal, 1 board and 1 block in Tel Aviv's back-to-back Euroleague losses.

The 24-year-old San Diego State product played a series of impressive games throughout his short-lived Israeli stint, registering 7.4 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.3 blocks during Maccabi's domestic competition.

Thomas would showcase a notable Euroleague performance in Maccabi's hard-fought 70-68 victory over Italian Montepaschi Siena in mid-October, posting his first double-double of 14 points and 11 rebounds in 26 minutes of action.

Yet, after Tel Aviv signed 6-foot-11, 22-year-old Croatian muscle Darko Planinic, Blatt couldn’t find substantial minutes for Thomas, whose role began to decrease. Significantly.

Thomas was announced inactive over the team's recent pair of Israeli League games, and averaged only 2 points in 8 minutes over 5 Euroleague Top 16 appearances for Maccabi.

Thomas, a former D-League finalist and San Antonio Spur, completed his Euroleague-rookie campaign averaging 4.4 points and 2.8 rebounds.

Thomas joins Dee Brown, Marcus Brown, Milan Macvan, Elton Brown, Jeff Foote, Charles Gaines, Demond Mallet, Noel Felix and Theodoros Papaloukas as late summer or midseason signees, who've failed (for whatever reason) to produce in Tel Aviv.