The most traded player in NBA history is about to add another to his tally.
According to NBA insiders Shams Charania and Adrian Wojnarowski, the Oklahoma City Thunder and Miami Heat have finalized a deal that will send Trevor Ariza from OKC to South Beach in exchange for Meyers Leonard and a 2027 second-round pick. Per Woj, Leonard had to waive a no-trade clause because of the one-year Bird restriction on his deal, but was expected to do so.
Ariza, 35, has not played this season due to personal reasons, and had opted out of last season’s NBA bubble restart to instead spend time with his son. He began his career the Knicks’ second-round pick in 2004, but his career is notable for him being the most-traded player in NBA history; this deal would be the 11th Ariza has been a part of in his career and the fourth since the end of the 2019-20 NBA season, as he was dealt from Portland to Houston, then from Houston to Detroit, and finally Detroit to OKC in a six-day span around Thanksgiving.
So far, Ariza’s trade tree has gone from New York to Orlando, to New Orleans (via a stop in Houston), to Washington, back to Houston, back to Washington (via Phoenix), to Portland (via Sacramento), to Houston, to Detroit, to OKC, and now to Miami, who will be his 10th total NBA team.
It was the flurry of three deals in six days that gave Ariza the record of nine, surpassing Chris Gatling and Dale Ellis, who were dealt eight times each in their careers.
Leonard, 27, played just three games this season for Miami – notching nine points, seven rebounds, and two assists in 29 minutes – and is out for the remainder of the year after undergoing shoulder surgery.
He, too, was in the news recently for dubious reasons – the anti-Semitic comments he made on a live video game stream that earned him a one-week suspension without pay earlier this month.
Leonard’s suspension ended Tuesday, and as he is out for the year, his value to OKC is as an expiring contract; his salary was needed to offset Ariza’s in the deal, and the Thunder can either use him as a trade piece in another deal before next week’s trade deadline or simply buy his contract out.
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