1) Ish Smith

In the summer before the ’22-’23 season, one of the Nuggets’ most crucial transactions was trading for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, whose two-way skills at shooting guard were a key component of their title run. Smith was a throw-in to that trade and the veteran point guard played only light minutes in Denver, mostly in garbage time. But he made history, becoming the first player to suit up for 13 different NBA teams. Despite a star turn at Wake Forest, Smith went un-drafted in 2010 due to his size (listed at 6’0″) but eventually made his way onto the Rockets via their G-League affiliate. From there, Smith was traded to Memphis, signed with Golden State, signed with Orlando, was traded to Milwaukee, was traded to Phoenix, signed with Oklahoma City, was traded to New Orleans, signed with Philadelphia, signed with Washington, signed with Detroit, and signed with Charlotte. Along the way, he also made return stops to the 76ers, Wizards, and Hornets (his current team), meaning that Smith has changed franchises 16 times in 14 seasons.

2) Jim Jackson

A #4 overall pick out of Ohio State in 1992, Jackson was looking like a Mavericks franchise cornerstone by his third season, averaging 25.7 points per game. Instead, he ended up playing for 12 franchises in 14 years, eventually becoming the only player in NBA history to total 500+ points for eight different teams. Why the sudden split? Even as he was putting up solid numbers, Jackson was drawing ire at every level of the Mavs franchise, from challenging ownership over his rookie contract, to confounding coaches and trainers with his lack of regimen (which likely caused the ankle injury that cut his start third season short), to feuding with fellow Dallas star Jason Kidd, supposedly over a love triangle with singer Toni Braxton. After four-and-a-half seasons with Dallas, Jackson was shipped to the Nets in 1997 and the remainder of his career was wayward from there. He was ultimately traded six times, placing him additionally with the 76ers, Warriors, Hawks, Cavaliers, Hornets, and Suns. Jackson also signed free agency contracts with the Trail Blazers, Heat, Kings, Rockets, and the Lakers. Despite the numerous transactions and near constant injury issues, Jackson was waived only once in his career, by the Suns at age 36 (leading to his final landing spot, signing with the Lakers later that season). He also never returned to any team after leaving, making a linear path through 12 franchises.

3) Chucky Brown

In a resume spanning 13 years as a player, Brown not only played for 12 NBA franchises (and had multiple stints with the Cavs and Hornets) but also fit in time with two CBA teams and the Pallacenestro Firenze of the Italian Serie A2 league. In 1995, Brown had a singular accomplishment, becoming the only player to win a CBA title (with the Yakima Sun Kings) and NBA title (with the Houston Rockets) in the same calendar year). Brown’s stint with Houston was far-and-away his most notable time in the NBA, contributing to that 1995 championship team and averaging a career high 8.6 points per game in ’95-’96 before getting traded to the Suns (as part of the blockbuster Charles Barkley deal). Brown was traded only other time in his career, to the Bucks, otherwise landing with the Lakers, Nets, Mavericks, Heat, Rockets, Hawks, Hornets, Spurs, Warriors, and Kings via free agency. Even before he reached the NBA, Brown was finding himself changing hands multiple times, as the second round draft pick the Cavaliers used on him in 1989 had been previously dealt on three occasions.

4) Kevin Ollie

Even on a list like this, Ollie’s resume is uniquely itinerant. Un-drafted out of Connecticut, he started off in the CBA before signing as a free agent with the Mavericks ahead of the ’97-’98 season. From there, Ollie changed teams 10 times in his first six seasons, signing contracts with the Magic, Kings, 76ers, Nets, Bulls, and Bucks, and getting traded at one point to the Pacers (as part of the 2002 Ron Artest deal) and to the SuperSonics (as part of the 2003 Ray Allen deal). Ollie finally found some stability in the back half of his career, spending four full seasons with the 76ers (his third stint with the team), sandwiched in between one-year gigs acting as a mentor to a rookie LeBron James in Cleveland and to a young Kevin Durant in Oklahoma City. While Ollie played big minutes or put up serious stats (he retired in 2010 with career averages of 3.8 points and 2.3 assists per game), his leadership skills extended his playing career and foreshadowed his coaching one, which included leading his alma mater, UConn, to the NCAA title in 2014.

5) Trevor Ariza

Over a lengthy NBA career, Ariza played for 10 different teams, which lags behind most of the other players on this list. But he was traded 11 times, which grants him the distinction as the most traded player in NBA history. Selected by the Knicks in the second round of the 2004 NBA Draft, Ariza was first traded during the ’05-’06 season, when he was packaged together with a broken down Penny Hardaway and shipped to the Magic in exchange for Steve Francis. That would be emblematic of Ariza’s trade history, as he was never part of anything even resembling a blockbuster. In fact, all of Ariza’s 11 trades were involved teams shifting around bench players and/or freeing up cap space. Not that that’s an indictment of Ariza himself, as he crafted a solid, lengthy career as a defensive and shooting specialist, including as part of the ’08-’09 Lakers title team.

6) Drew Gooden

LeBron James’ early years in Cleveland were largely defined by coaching turnover and roster churn. One of the few constants in the lineup in those seasons was Gooden, a steady presence at power forward. This turned out to be a bit ironic, as the rest of Gooden’s career was defined by flux. After three-and-a-half seasons with the Cavs, Gooden was traded to the Bulls in 2008, kicking off a stretch of three years in which he suited up for seven different teams, going from the Bulls to the Kings to the Spurs to the Mavericks to the Clippers to the Bucks. Even before his stretch in Cleveland, Gooden had an interesting transactional distinction, becoming the only player ever to be named 1st-Team All-Rookie after getting traded during his rookie season, going from the Grizzlies to the Magic.

7) Joe Smith

What a long, strange trip it was for Smith. A surprise #1 overall pick of the Warriors in 1995, Smith turned out to be more of a solid role player than a superstar. He was 1st-Team All-Rookie, and averaged 16.2 points and 7.7 rebounds per game in his first three seasons, but that was his peak statistically and he never attained any further individual accolades. Smith lasted 16 seasons in the NBA, playing for 12 different franchises. Along the way, he was teammates with Kevin Garnett, Allen Iverson, LeBron James, and Kobe Bryant, but reached as far as the Conference Finals just once, in 2009 with the Cavaliers. Smith’s longest and most notable stint was with the Timberwolves, who signed him to a surprisingly modest one-year deal in 1998. Turns out, Smith had made an illegal under-the-table deal with Minnesota general Kevin McHale which, when discovered by the league office, cost the franchise five first round draft picks and over $3 million in fines.

8) Earl Boykins
9) Isaiah Thomas

Making it to the NBA at all was a miraculous achievement for Boykins and Thomas, let alone winding up on the roster of 10 different franchises. Both are amongst the list of shortest players of all time, with Thomas checking in at 5’9″ and Boykins at 5’5″. Thomas was the last pick (#60 overall) of the 2011 NBA Draft while Boykins went completely un-drafted in 1998. The comparisons end somewhat from there, with Boykins becoming a steady bench presence for 13 years while Thomas had a sharp ascent to two-time All-Star and nearly a scoring champion before almost just as precipitous a fall to damaged goods being passed from team to team. Amazingly, of the 12 times a team acquired Boykins during his career (he had two separate stints with the Cavs and Bucks), only one did so via trade, when the Bucks dealt Steve Blake for him in 2007. Thomas was traded five times in his career, including a blockbuster in 2017 when he was sent from Boston to Cleveland as part of a package for Kyrie Irving. That’s when Thomas’ career began to slip due largely to the effects of multiple hip surgeries. In the last five years of his career, he played for seven different teams, going from the Cavaliers to the Lakers to the Nuggets to the Clippers, then getting waived and signing subsequent 10-day contracts with the Pelicans, Lakers (again), and Hornets.

10) Jeff Green

In many ways, Green is the epitome of this list. A player who combines the enticing potential of a top five pick like Jim Jackson or Joe Smith (Green went #5 overall in 2007) with the intangibles and leadership of an overlooked benchwarmer like Kevin Ollie and the nebulous skill set of a valuable role player like Trevor Ariza or Drew Gooden. He has also played with an incredible array of legends, suiting up alongside Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden (Thunder), Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, and Kevin Garnett (Celtics), Chris Paul (Clippers), LeBron James (Cavaliers), and Nikola Jokic (Nuggets). It was with his 10th team, the Nuggets, that Green finally won an NBA title in 2023. It could have been a fitting end to a circuitous yet satisfying career but Green is still going strong now at age 37, filling bench minutes and leadership role for an up-and-coming Rockets team.