It seems that Ersan Ilyasova has had enough of the tanking season for the Milwaukee Bucks and is asking for a trade to get him out of there in the next few days. He hasn’t been that great himself, but he should pick up some interest, including from the Houston Rockets, who are actively looking for a stretch-four power forward, with Ilyasova fitting the description.
Ilyasova has played in 40 games this season for the Bucks, averaging only 10.2 points per game (his lowest in four years) while shooting 37.5% from the field and 29.3% from beyond the arc. The team is playing bad, he’s playing bad and he’s unhappy with the overall situation.
According to The Journal Times Ilyasova has denied actually asking for a trade, but he and his agent have hinted (and more than that) that the Bucks changing so many players each season and their ever lasting rebuilding intentions are something he’ growing tired of.
Ilyasova has a deal that keeps him until 2016-2017 under contract: $8 million for the next two seasons and $8.4 million on the final season; not the greatest deal for teams looking to add him. However, only $400,000 of that final year is guaranteed, which means it’s just a bad deal and not a horrible one.
Can the Bucks get rid of it? Maybe if they sell the story of Ilaysova being bad this year for what’s been done to the team, and not a sudden and sharp decline in his ability. Three-point shooters are of high value in this league and shooting forwards possibly even more, especially for a team like the Rockets who have a lot of firepower in the inside but need to improve on their ability to get points from beyond the arc consistently.
The Bucks themselves are open to almost any trade offer they’ll get as long as Henson and Giannis aren’t a part of it, but the question is what are the Rockets willing to send over, because they’ll need to clear a lot of cap space to make this deal work. The only deals that work straight up or Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin, which are two players the Rockets shouldn’t trade for Ilyasova.