Trades are a part of NBA reality for players, who sign their contracts knowing that their teams can send them elsewhere just about any time, usually without their consent. Kobe Bryant, Dirk Nowitzki, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett are the only four players with no-trade clauses written into their contracts, though the Celtics received Garnett’s OK to send him to the Nets this summer. Players who re-sign with a team on a one-year contract also have veto power over trades, through a quirk in the collective bargaining agreement, though sometimes those guys consent to trades, too, as Marreese Speights did last season.
Still, few if any players would be on board with getting traded for a second time in a year, as Luc Mbah a Moute was today. He’s the ninth player to endure more than one trade since the start of the 2012/13 season. Malcolm Lee has gone through three trades, though he wasn’t with the Warriors long, since Golden State acquired him and shipped him out on the same night. Those trades happened at the draft, and unless a veteran like Lee was involved, draft-night trades aren’t accounted for on this list, since they happen before any of the incoming rookies have signed their contracts. I also didn’t count J.J. Redick, because the second swap he was involved in was a sign-and-trade transaction that facilitated his new deal with the Clippers, and the trade wouldn’t have happened without his approval.
Here are the well-traveled nine:
- Luc Mbah a Moute (Bucks trade him to Kings on July 12th; Kings trade him to Timberwolves on November 26th)
- Malcolm Lee (Timberwolves trade him to Warriors on June 27th; Warriors trade him to Suns on June 27th; Suns trade him to Wizards on October 25th)
- Caron Butler (Clippers trade him to Suns on July 10th; Suns trade him to Bucks on August 29th)
- Viacheslav Kravtsov (Pistons trade him to Bucks on July 31st; Bucks trade him to Suns on August 29th)
- Ish Smith (Magic trade him to Bucks on February 21st; Bucks trade him to Suns on August 29th
- Thomas Robinson (Kings trade him to Rockets on February 20th; Rockets trade him to Trail Blazers on July 10th)
- Hamed Haddadi (Grizzlies trade him to Raptors on January 30th; Raptors trade him to Suns on February 21st)
- Hakim Warrick (Pelicans trade him to Bobcats on November 13th, 2012; Bobcats trade him to Magic on February 21st)