The Bratwurst – Milwaukee Bucks Blog

Well, the great Ersan Ilyasova experiment is over. He is signing with AXA Barcelona (link to La Vanguardia, sorry, it’s in Spanish) for a 2 year deal rumored to be around $5 million, which is far more than he would be worth in an NBA uniform.

(Courtesy of Freetranslation.com):

Barcelona. (EFE).- The Turkish one Ersan Ilyasova, that the last season played in Milwaukee Bucks, has become the first acquisition of the AXA Barcelona for the two next seasons, has confirmed today the Catalonian club.

Ilyasova (2.08 meters and 20 years) is a capable, polyvalent player to play in exterior positions, in spite of his height. According to the reports that have of him, is a basketball player that runs very well in the transition, with a good launch exterior, large bases and good rebounder, especially in attack.

(Well, I guess you get what you pay for)

Good move for Ersan. His game will probably fit well in the slower, smaller, more physical Euroleague game where he might actually be able to play as a gigantic 2-guard.

So we will never know what Ersan actually was capable of. A solid NBDL season and MVP of the European Under-20 Championships made it look like the Bucks had found a diamond in the rough, but he had a real problem with defense at the NBA level (the Bucks were outscored by 11 ppg with him on the floor, but by 4 with him off). Compounding the problem was the fact that injuries forced him to start far more games than he should (and into tougher matchups) and to play a good portion out of position at power forward. Also there was some question about his long term potential, as ankle injuries before coming to the NBA had slowed him somewhat and his age had come under suspicion.

Best of luck to you Ersan. The Bucks have enough polyvalent players, anyway.

*Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines “polyvalent” as:

Function: adjective
Etymology: International Scientific Vocabulary
1 : having a chemical valence greater usually than two
2 : effective against, sensitive toward, or counteracting more than one toxin, microorganism, or antigen <polyvalent vaccines>