The Bucks are thrilled to have Ersan Ilyasova back on the squad after three seasons without the former second-round pick.
“Ersan is a high IQ player, he can shoot the ball so he gives Giannis and the rest of the team space,” GM Jon Horst said (via the Behind the Buck Pass’ Twitter feed). “He’s competitive, he’s tough, and he knows our system, he knows our community, he knows our players. He was a guy we focused on in free agency, and we’ll be excited to add him.”
Milwaukee agreed to terms on a three-year, $21MM deal as free agency began last weekend. Here’s more from Milwaukee:
- Horst discussed the Jabari Parker‘s pending restricted free agency during an appearance on NBATV (h/t Adam McGee of Behind the Buck Pass). “We’ve had great conversations [with Parker and his agent], we’re in contact every day. I think the market will dictate some of it, but we’ll continue to work on it and we’ll see how it turns out,” Horst said.
- Kevin Pelton of ESPN.com examines why Brook Lopez didn’t fetch a more lucrative deal than the one-year, $3.4MM contract he agreed to with the Bucks. While Lopez will provide Milwaukee with a proven scorer in the paint, his lack of foot speed will make it difficult for him to have a defensive impact. Pelton notes that the big man’s ability to shoot from behind the arc will help the team space the floor on offense.
- The arrival of Lopez likely means Tyler Zeller‘s time in Milwaukee will come to an end, Pelton speculates in the same piece. Zeller’s $1.9MM salary is non-guaranteed and the Bucks will have to be careful in the margins if they plan on making an offer to Parker without going into the luxury tax. If the Bucks waive both Zeller and Brandon Jennings, whose $2.2MM salary does not become guaranteed until August 1, they’d have approximately $11.5MM of financial wiggle room below the luxury tax line.
its unreal that the Bucks can be hard capped while GS can somehow afford Durant, Curry, Green, Thompson, Boogie, Iggy, Livingston, Jerepko, and whomever else I am missing.
And OKC has a $300M payroll? this system is broken
The system is not broken. Milwaukee won’t be hard capped just paying luxury tax, like GSW do & any decent team that wants to compete have to be. The biggest difference is that some teams are smarter than others, some pay big money to stars & minimums to the rest, while other teams pay big money for worthless guys, just because they fear they might loose them, so what, role guys are easy to get, you only brake the bank for the match winning guys, that is what GSW does, other teams for example Miami pay lots of money to players, but they haven’t got a simple star in the team, that way you never go anywhere.
Whats the odds Zeller ends up in LA