Brooklyn Nets To Go After Ersan Ilyasova?
The Brooklyn Nets have the potential to be big buyers this upcoming offseason. One target that has been thrown around the rumor mill for the Nets. Milwaukee Bucks forward Ersan Ilyasova has been the guy that could be heading east to join the Nets in Brooklyn after finishing second in Most Improved Player of the Year voting.
The Nets have been interested in the Bucks’ forward throughout the year and could have traded for him a few times during the 2011-12 season but missed out a few times. The Nets decision making on Ilyasova is going to depend on how much money the spend to re-sign all of their impending free agents. Ilyasova could be worth at an upwards of $8 million this season.
The Bucks are interested in re-signing Ilyasova but Milwaukee GM John Hammond admitted that re-signing the Turkish star is going to be difficult. The Bucks do own the Bird rights on him and will have a ton of cap space to make him a very competitive offer but Ilyasova is likely to get a better offer on the open market.
Ilyasova will have to compete on the open market with other key free agents like the San Antonio Spurs‘ forward Tim Duncan and Boston Celtics‘ forward Kevin Garnett. The plus-side for Ilyasova is that out of all the competitors looking for a big deal, Ilyasova is only 25 and is likely to get a long-term contract.
Last season, llyasova improved from 9.5 points per game to 13.0 points per game as well as improving his rebounds per game average from 6.1 to 8.8. Ilyasova will probably get a big contract but he will have to continue playing at the great improving pace that he has been playing at.
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