Who is Ish Smith? Nuggets player who set the record for playing for 13 teams in 13 seasons

It’s been a long road to glory for Ish Smith over the course of his career, but he and the Denver Nuggets are knocking on the door of an NBA Title. No one on the Nuggets, or in the league has had a bumpier journey than the Denver point guard who is playing on his 13th team in 13 seasons.

Smith’s NBA journey starts in Houston

Kids all around the world dream of growing up and being a super star in the NBA. A handful of them go on to live out that dream, winning titles, and MVPs and going down in the history books of the NBA. Others fall short and never get a chance to play. Then there are the others who live out their dream of making it to the league, but have to fight each and every year to make an NBA roster.

That’s Ish Smith. Since coming out of Wake Forest University, he has had to claw his way into each and every team he’s been on. He averaged 13 points and six assists in his senior year as a Demon Deacon, but went undrafted after entering his name 2010 NBA Draft.

The Houston Rockets took a chance on him and signed him that summer, but he was sent to their D-League team, the Rio Grande Vipers midway through the season. He came back to the Rockets a few weeks later, but then was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies for the last few months of the season.

Best years in the Brotherly Love

He made fifteen appearances for the Grizzlies between then end of the 2010-11 season and midway through the next campaign. He was waived by Memphis in December of 2011 and the Golden State Warriors picked him up a few days later. HIs era in the Bay was short lived. After less than a month with the Warriors he was waived again.

He was picked up by the Magic and lasted an entire calendar year in Orlando in Florida before getting traded to the Milwaukee Bucks. He would pass through Milwaukee, Phoenix, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, New Orleans and a return stint in Philly over the next two and a half years. His best basketball came in 2015/16 when Smith put up 14.7 ppg, and that earned him his longest deal in the NBA.

Smith finally got to settle down for an extended period time when he was signed for the Detroit Pistons. He would spend three years in Detroit averaging 9 points and 4 assists in his time as a Piston.

The ring at the end of the tunnel

In the summer of 2019 he would hit the market yet again, and the Washington Wizards scooped him up. He stayed in the nation’s capital for two years but his role diminished over that time, and he was let go after his second season.

In August of 2021 the Charlotte Hornets put him in the record books, becoming the 12th team to sign Smith, putting him in a category with Joe Smith, Chucky Brown, Jim Jackson, Kevin Ollie and Tony Massenberg as the only players to ever play for 12 teams. He was traded back to Washington for the end of the same season before finding his pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

The Denver Nuggets brought him and Kentaious Caldwell-Pope to the Mile High City in a trade, and Ish Smith made history becoming the first player to play with 13 different franchises. He played less than 10 minutes a game, and averaged 2.5 points and 2.3 assists but has added a veteran presence on the bench, and his journey will be a reminder to the younger guys of just how tough it is to have a long career in the league, and how special and seldom these trips to the Finals come.