Journeymen are not “end of the bench” stories. They are veterans who keep getting jobs because their games translate quickly, their roles are flexible, and teams trust them to stabilize minutes when the roster changes.
Dennis Schroder is the clearest case. The Cavaliers acquired him at the deadline, and it marked his 11th NBA team, which is the definition of an in-demand, plug-and-play guard in today’s league.
This article breaks down eight true NBA journeymen still active right now, like Schroder himself, Garrett Temple, and the other veterans who have turned constant movement into long-term careers.
8. Kelly Olynyk – 8 NBA Teams
Teams: Celtics (2013-2017), Heat (2017-2021), Rockets (2021), Pistons (2021-2022), Jazz (2022-2024), Raptors (2024-2025), Pelicans (2025), Spurs (2025-present)
Kelly Olynyk entered the league as the No. 13 pick in the 2013 draft. The Mavericks made the pick and moved him to the Celtics on draft night, starting a four-season run that established him as a regular rotation big. From there, he spent four seasons with the Heat, one with the Rockets, part of two with the Pistons, two with the Jazz, then moved again as teams cycled veterans around the deadline and in the offseason.
The recent transaction chain into the Spurs is straightforward, and it explains why he’s on an eighth team. During 2024-25, he finished with the Pelicans after a move from the Raptors. In June 2025, the Pelicans traded him to the Wizards in a multi-player deal. The Wizards then flipped him again in July 2025, sending Olynyk to the Spurs for Malaki Branham, Blake Wesley, and a 2026 second-round pick.
This season (2025-26), Olynyk’s role with the Spurs has been limited. He is averaging 3.5 points, 1.9 rebounds, and 1.2 assists per game while shooting 48.1% from the field, which reflects a smaller-minute usage rather than a featured frontcourt role.
For context, Olynyk’s career production sits at 10.2 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game. Last season (2024-25), split between the Raptors and Pelicans, he averaged 8.7 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 2.9 assists. Contract-wise, he arrived to the Spurs with one season remaining at $13.4 million, which lines up with how teams have treated him lately: a movable veteran rotation piece with a clear, tradable salary slot.
7. Svi Mykhailiuk – 8 NBA Teams
Teams: Lakers (2018-2019), Pistons (2019-2021), Thunder (2021), Raptors (2021-2022), Knicks (2022-2023), Hornets (2023), Celtics (2023-2024), Jazz (2024-present)
Svi Mykhailiuk was the No. 47 pick in the 2018 draft after three college seasons. His first season was spent with the Lakers, but his career quickly shifted into the league’s transactional lane.
In February 2019, he was traded to the Pistons, where he spent the longest uninterrupted stretch of his NBA career and logged his highest game totals in consecutive seasons. After that, he passed through a short Thunder stint in 2021 and then signed with the Raptors for 2021-22.
From 2022 through 2024, his career was defined by yearly movement and changing roles. He joined the Knicks in 2022, then moved again during the 2023 season to the Hornets. In the summer of 2023, he signed with the Celtics, played the 2023-24 season there in a limited role, and reached free agency again.
The Jazz acquired him through free agency in August 2024 on a four-year, $15.0 million contract, giving him a rare multi-year term for a player whose prior stops were mostly short deals. That agreement also coincided with the most stable minutes of his NBA career, as the Jazz has used him consistently as a perimeter option rather than a situational replacement.
In 2025-26, Mykhailiuk is averaging 9.0 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 1.9 assists in 23.8 minutes per game, with shooting splits of 47.8% from the field, 39.7% from three, and 92.0% on free throws.
6. DeAndre Jordan – 8 NBA Teams
Teams: Clippers (2008-2018), Mavericks (2018-2019), Knicks (2019), Nets (2019-2021), Pistons (2021), Lakers (2021-2022), 76ers (2022), Nuggets (2022-2025), Pelicans (2025-present)
DeAndre Jordan has been in the NBA since 2008, when the Clippers took him No. 35 overall. He spent 10 seasons there, then the journeyman phase started fast: he signed with the Mavericks in 2018, was traded to the Knicks in 2019, signed with the Nets that summer, moved to the Pistons in 2021, then joined the Lakers after a buyout. The 76ers signed him in March 2022, and he landed with the Nuggets that offseason, where he won the 2023 title before finishing a three-season run as a reserve center.
The current stop is the Pelicans. They signed him on Oct. 24, 2025, on a one-year deal worth $3.6 million. That signing made them his eighth team and locked in his role as frontcourt depth behind the primary rotation bigs.
In 2025-26, Jordan is averaging 4.5 points and 5.0 rebounds per game while shooting 80.0% from the field in just 2 games. Last season with the Nuggets (2024-25), he averaged 3.7 points and 5.1 rebounds in 12.3 minutes across 56 games.
Career context is why he keeps getting calls: 1,113 regular-season games, 8.5 points and 9.7 rebounds per game, plus the league’s highest career field-goal percentage (67.4%).
5. Delon Wright – 10 NBA Teams
Teams: Raptors (2015-2019), Grizzlies (2019), Mavericks (2019-2020), Pistons (2020-2021), Kings (2021), Hawks (2021-2022), Wizards (2022-2024), Heat (2024), Bucks (2024-2025), Knicks (2025)
The 2015 draft is where Delon Wright’s NBA timeline starts: he went No. 20 overall and spent his first four seasons with the Raptors before the movement began. Since then, the résumé has become a full tour through the league’s middle class of rotation guards, with stops that often came through deadline deals, short-term signings, or teams searching for defense and secondary playmaking without committing long-term money.
After the Raptors stretch, he moved through the Grizzlies and Mavericks, then split the next two seasons across the Pistons and Kings, followed by a Hawks stop. From there, he spent two seasons with the Wizards, signed with the Heat late in 2023-24, then joined the Bucks for 2024-25 before being traded to the Knicks at the deadline.
In 2024-25, across the Bucks and Knicks, Wright averaged 3.1 points, 1.7 rebounds, and 1.9 assists in 15.9 minutes per game, with shooting splits of 34.4% from the field, 27.4% from three, and 60.0% at the line.
Right now, he is not on a regular-season roster for 2025-26. He signed with the Pacers for camp in late September 2025 and was waived in early October, leaving him as a free agent. Career-wise, he is at 6.7 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 3.0 assists per game over 548 regular-season games, which is the statistical summary of a decade-long role player career that has traveled across 10 teams.
4. Seth Curry – 10 NBA Teams
Teams: Grizzlies (2013-2014), Cavaliers (2013-2014), Suns (2014-2015), Kings (2015-2016), Mavericks (2016-2017, 2019-2020, 2023-2024), Trail Blazers (2018-2019), 76ers (2020-2022), Nets (2022-2023), Hornets (2024-2025), Warriors (2025-present)
Seth Curry’s NBA career has been built almost entirely through movement. He went undrafted in 2013, got his first NBA minutes that season with the Grizzlies, and then spent the middle of the decade bouncing between opportunities until he established himself as a rotation guard.
The longest early “stability” stretch came with the Mavericks, where he played in 2016-17 before later returning in separate stints. His résumé hits the full spectrum of roster pathways. There were short stints early (Grizzlies, Cavaliers, Suns), then a steadier role phase (Kings, Mavericks, Trail Blazers), then playoff-contender rotations (76ers and Nets), then a return closer to a specialist role later (Hornets, then Warriors).
Across his career, he has played for 10 franchises while maintaining a defined statistical identity: efficient perimeter scoring with limited usage. For his NBA career, Curry is averaging 10.0 points, 1.9 rebounds, and 1.9 assists per game.
The current stop is the Warriors. He signed with Golden State in October 2025, was waived mid-October, and then was officially signed for the remainder of the 2025-26 season on December 1, 2025.
In 2025-26 with the Warriors, Curry’s season line is 7.0 points, 2.0 rebounds, and 1.5 assists per game in a small sample, while dealing with a back issue (sciatica) during this current stretch.
3. Dennis Schroder – 11 NBA Teams
Teams: Hawks (2013-2018), Thunder (2018-2020), Lakers (2020-2021, 2022-2023), Celtics (2021-2022), Rockets (2021-2022), Raptors (2023-2024), Nets (2024), Warriors (2024), Pistons (2024-2025), Kings (2025-2026), Cavaliers (2026-present)
Dennis Schroder’s league timeline starts with the Hawks, who drafted him No. 17 in 2013 and kept him for five seasons before the first major move. From there, the list becomes the definition of a journeyman star-level guard: Thunder, Lakers (two separate stints), Celtics, Rockets, Raptors, Nets, Warriors, Pistons, then Kings, before the latest deadline swing to the Cavaliers.
The Cavaliers got him in a three-team trade with the Kings and Bulls at the deadline. In that deal, the Kings landed De’Andre Hunter, the Cavaliers received Schroder and Keon Ellis, and the Bulls took Dario Saric plus two second-round picks.
Schroder’s line is 12.3 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 5.1 assists per game, with 40.0% from the field for 2025-26. Before the trade, the Kings were openly looking to move him, which is the context for why the Cavaliers targeted him: ball-handling minutes and table-setting, not a low-usage bench cameo.
For career context, Schroder averages 14.0 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 4.8 assists per game in 27.2 minutes across 768 games, with 43.4% from the field, 34.2% from three, and 83.6% at the line.
2. Jeff Green – 11 NBA Teams
Teams: Thunder (2007-2011), Celtics (2011-2015), Grizzlies (2015-2016), Clippers (2016), Magic (2016-2017), Cavaliers (2017-2018), Wizards (2018-2019), Jazz (2019), Rockets (2020, 2023-present), Nets (2020-2021), Nuggets (2021-2023)
Selected No. 5 in the 2007 draft, Jeff Green opened his career with the Thunder, then was dealt to the Celtics in 2011 after 4 seasons in Oklahoma. The rest of his timeline is essentially a map of veteran stops: Grizzlies, Clippers, Magic, Cavaliers, Wizards, and Jazz, followed by a 2020 season with the Rockets, which ended with him signing with the Nets in free agency.
After the Nets’ season, Green spent three years with the Nuggets (2021-2023), then returned to the Rockets in July 2023. That second Houston run is the current one, and it has continued into 2025-26, as the Rockets re-signed him in July 2025 on a one-year, minimum contract.
For the current season, Green is averaging 2.3 points, 0.6 rebounds, and 0.2 assists per game in 4.6 minutes, shooting 46.9% from the field. Across his NBA career, he is at 11.7 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 1.4 assists per game, with more than 1,200 regular-season games played, which is the statistical backbone behind the “11 teams” label.
1. Garrett Temple – 12 NBA Teams
Teams: Rockets (2009-2010), Kings (2009-2010, 2016-2018), Spurs (2010-2011), Bucks (2011), Bobcats (2011), Wizards (2012-2016), Grizzlies (2018-2019), Clippers (2019), Nets (2019-2020), Bulls (2020-2021), Pelicans (2021-2023), Raptors (2023-present)
Undrafted out of LSU in 2009, Garrett Temple’s first NBA years were defined by short contracts and roster turnover. He logged early appearances with the Rockets and Kings, then later stuck longer once he reached the Wizards, where he spent four straight seasons (2012-13 through 2015-16).
After leaving the Wizards, the movement accelerated. Temple spent two seasons with the Kings (2016-18), then a season with the Grizzlies before being dealt at the 2019 deadline to the Clippers. From there, it became mostly one- and two-year stops: Nets, Bulls, then two seasons with the Pelicans, each time landing on teams cycling veterans around young cores or short-term competitive pushes.
He has been with the Raptors since 2023, and he returned for 2025-26 on a one-year, $3.6 million contract. This season, his usage has been minimal: 0.3 points, 0.3 rebounds, and 0.3 assists per game.
Across 743 NBA games (289 starts), Temple’s career averages are 6.1 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 1.7 assists per game. Those totals reflect what this type of career looks like in practice: a long sample, a lot of team changes, and a role that shifts from rotation minutes earlier to spot duty later.
NBA players who have played for 7 teams so far: Bismack Biyombo, Moses Brown, Justin Jackson, Doug McDermott, Cameron Payne, Mason Plumlee, Dario Saric, Russell Westbrook
