Ersan Ilyasova Has Been Traded 5 Times in Less Than Two Years

Ersan Ilyasova was born nearly 30 years ago in Eskişehir, Turkey. It’s unclear if he began dreaming of the most beautiful cities in the United States at a young age, but that is the reality of his adult life. Ilyasova has been traded from the Philadelphia 76ers to the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday. It was the 5th time in 20 months that Ilyasova has been traded.

Ilyasova was selected by the Milwaukee Bucks with the 36th overall pick in the 2005 NBA Draft. Ilyasova played in the D-League with the Tulsa 66ers during the ’05-’06 season and then played 14 minutes a game for the Bucks in ’06-’07. After that he spent two seasons in Liga ACB with FC Barcelona before returning to Milwaukee. After 6 seasons in Milwaukee, in June 2015, Ilyasova was traded to the Detroit Pistons for Caron Butler and Shawne Williams.

He played 52 games in Detroit before the Pistons sent him to Orlando in the Tobias Harris trade. The Magic sent him to Oklahoma City with Victor Oladipo during the offseason. Three games into this season he was again traded, this time to Philadelphia for Jerami Grant.

Ilyasova put up career highs of 14.8 points and 1.8 assists to go along with 5.9 rebounds a night for the plucky 76ers. Now, presumably too effective and too old to be a part of The Process, Ilyasova has again been moved to Atlanta. The good news for Ilyasova is that this all ends today at 4pm. His becomes an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season and gets to choose where he plays next season. Wherever he goes, you have to wonder how highly he’ll ask his agent to prioritize a no-trade clause in his next deal.