Atlanta Hawks: Ersan Ilyasova Fills A Need
In the first big splash of the trade deadline for the Atlanta Hawks, the team acquired eight year veteran power forward Ersan Ilyasova from the Philadelphia 76ers
While this is not the big time splash that perhaps Atlanta Hawks fans were wishing for, but this is a deal that will surely benefit the Hawks for the rest of this season and possibly the near future.
Ersan helps fill what is one of the Hawks’ biggest weaknesses, and that is depth in the front-court. Paul Millsap and Dwight Howard are fantastic, but beyond that Atlanta’s bench has severely lacked solidarity from the backup bigs. Mike Muscala has been on and off, Kris Humphries can only give you so much, and Mike Scott has been nonexistent.
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Ilyasova strengthens the Hawks’ bench in every way. Not only does he bring a veteran presence with playoff experience, but it is also offensive consistency that Ersan brings.
Ilyasova has averaged 11 points per game for his career and has averaged double digit scoring in six of his eight season, also grabbing 6 rebounds per game, shooting 44.3% from the field and 36.7% from three for his career.
Another aspect that makes this trade so great is the fact that Atlanta did not have to give up much at all for such a valuable asset. When you look at other players being shopped around the league that are about the same value as Ilyasova (players such as Lou Williams, Bojan Bogdanovic, P.J. Tucker) all were being asked for a first-round pick in return. All the Hawks gave up for Ilyasova was Tiago Splitter, who quite frankly was done as a Hawk regardless, a second-round pick that was the Miami Heat’s, and the opportunity to swap second round picks for the upcoming draft.
It is hard to find really any negatives in this trade for Atlanta. The ghost of Tiago Splitter is gone and the Hawks fill what was perhaps the team’s biggest need. Ilyasova is a player that will truly increase Atlanta’s chances at a playoff run this season. The pure irony in all of this is that at 14.3 points per game Ersan Ilyasova is now the third leading scorer on the Hawks this season.
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It’s hard to call this move anything other than a home-run for Atlanta.