NBA Free Agency 2017 Player Profile: Ersan Ilyasova

Strengths

Ersan Ilyasova can shoot. That was one of the hallmarks of his stay in Milwaukee, during which Ilyasova hit 37 percent of his triples across seven different NBA seasons. Luckily for Ersan, he hasn’t lost his touch since leaving the Bucks.

Across five teams in the last two seasons, Ilyasova has shot a combined 36 percent from downtown. A three-game stint with the Thunder aside, Ersan hit at least 34.8 percent of his threes on each stop over the past two years.

In addition, as mentioned earlier, nobody is better at strategically taking charges than Ersan Ilyasova. He just has an unnatural sense for it. It seems like a trivial thing, but those are extra possessions generated for whatever team boasts Turkish Thunder.

Despite never receiving much acclaim, Ersan has been a dependable producer for a long time. Since his second season in the NBA, he’s averaged 11.6 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 25.6 minutes per game, while shooting 44.6 percent from the field and 36.6 percent from deep.

Ilyasova does not need specific conditions to thrive. He’s held those numbers fairly steady across stints on six different NBA teams, and showed no sign of slowing down last year, considering he averaged over 13 points per game.