Ever since re-signing with the Bucks in the summer of 2012, there’s been a huge disconnect between fans and the Bucks front office, old and new, about Ersan Ilyasova.
Fans think of Ilyasova, at his best, as a very efficient shooter and capable rebounder, but he’s a below-average defender (he does take a good charge though) and his ceiling is probably a sixth man/heat check guy off the bench on a good team.
However, former owner Herb Kohl was rumored to think of Ilyasova as a star player in the NBA and he was even said to be his “favorite player”, while Kidd, allegedly, tried to trade for him in a package trade between the Bucks and Nets before leaving the Nets for the Bucks this past Summer.
Whether these bits of information are true, it doesn’t shy away from the fact that the Bucks are implementing a culture change from their “8th seed or bust” days. They’re building towards the future, developing their young guys as much as they can, while getting veteran players to buy into their philosophy of team basketball, and Ilyasova has done that.
The problem is that he’s a shell of himself and what he brings to the team is being done better by players other than him, like Jared Dudley and Khris Middleton (in terms of efficiency).
It’s easy to overlook why the Bucks re-signed him in the first place, but looking back, Ilyasova broke out as a highly consistent contributor to what were some pretty middling to underachieving Bucks team with Skiles, and later Boylan.
In his breakout season in 2011-2012, Ilyasova led the team in rebounds (8.8), PER (20.5), win shares (6.4), and ORtg (118, 10th in the NBA), per Basketball-Reference, while the team scrounged up 31 wins and missed the playoffs.
The next year, Ilyasova continued to lead the team in win shares (6.7), ORtg (114) and shot 44% from 3’s (4th in the NBA), on a team that ended up getting shut out 4-0 in the first round against the eventual champion Miami Heat .
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But what used to be Ilyasova’s biggest strength and what separated him from the rest of the players at his position is now a glaring weakness. In 2011-2012, Ilyasova finished 2nd in the league in 3-point shooting, shooting 45 percent and the next year, he was 4th in the league, shooting 44 percent. Since then, he’s struggled to regain his shooting touch, only shooting 28 percent on 2.4 attempts last year, his lowest since entering the NBA, and at the time of this article, shooting 34 percent on 2.7 attempts.
The biggest reason for why Ilyasova can’t find a rhythm on the court is because he can’t stay on it. Last year, he entered the season with an ankle injury that hampered him the whole season and he was shut down for the season in mid-March, only playing in 55 games.
Determined to not repeat the same mistakes, Ilyasova entered the season fully healthy, going as far as declining to play for the Turkish national team in international play in the summer. It looked like that was working out for Ilyasova and looked like he was starting to resemble his former self, coming off the bench before suffering a nasal fracture against Cleveland in early December.
Since then, the Bucks team has changed significantly. Ever since returning to the court, he’s playing big minutes once again, because of the Parker injury and is trying to find a rhythm, like the team as whole, since the All-Star break.
The next 2 months could dictate the future of Ilyasova, depending on how well he plays. Always a subject of trade rumors, Ilyasova, brings something to the court that teams nowadays highly value, regardless of his struggles.
If it wasn’t for Parker and Inglis being lost for the season, Ilyasova would be very expendable, as the Bucks have plenty of depth at the 4/power forward spot with Parker, O’Bryant, Inglis and even Dudley. They all seem to be better fits in the system that Kidd has established anyway.
Finally, in a league where the salary cap is rising very significantly in a couple of years, teams will definitely ask the Bucks about Ilyasova (he has 2 years left on his contract, but the last year is basically a team option) and maybe he can bring his thunder to another team.