Isaiah Canaan will have another chance to prove he still has plenty left in the tank. Trabzonspor officially announced the signing of the American shooting guard to bolster their perimeter, and the 35-year-old veteran returns to a country he knows from his brief stint with Galatasaray in 2022.
The signing is also a return to competition, plain and simple. His two-year stint with Crvena Zvezda Belgrade was cut short by an injury that caused him to miss the entire previous season, so the Biloxi native returns to the court after a full year away. The Serbian club still gave him time to add the 2025 Serbian Cup before the break.
A Survivor with Credentials
If anyone knows how to bounce back from injuries, it's him. In January 2018, with the Phoenix Suns, Canaan suffered one of the most gruesome ankle fractures ever remembered in the NBA, with his own teammates covering their faces on the court. He returned, extended his American career to 235 appearances across six franchises, and then built a second life in Europe that surpassed his first.
His best continental stint was with Olympiacos, between 2022 and 2024: Greek league champion in 2023, two Cups and MVP of the Greek All-Star Game, sharing the perimeter with Thomas Walkup on Bartzokas' team. Before that, he had spent two seasons at UNICS Kazan, and left Piraeus for Belgrade.
Developed at Murray State, where he was an All-American and his No. 3 jersey hangs retired from the arena, he was selected 34th overall in the 2013 draft by the Houston Rockets.
For Trabzonspor, the signing is textbook: a quick-handed scorer with proven credentials in three demanding leagues, at the cost of a player coming off injury. If the ankle and his 35 years cooperate, this is one of those signings that delivers above its price tag.