Milwaukee Bucks forward Ersan Ilyasova is coming off a miserable, injury-plagued season (shooting career lows of 40.9% and 28.6% on three-pointers.) Ilyasova, 27, took the summer off to recharge, and reports that he’s feeling better than ever.
The Bucks finished with an NBA-worst 15-67 record last season, but the future looks bright with new ownership, head coach Jason Kidd and stud rookie Jabari Parker. Per the Journal Sentinel:
Ilyasova did not play international basketball for Turkey this summer in an effort to regain full health, and he said at Monday’s annual team golf tournament that he is “100% healthy” entering next week’s preseason training camp. […] “This summer is the first time for a long time I didn’t play for the national team,” said Ilyasova, a member of Turkey’s runner-up World Championship squad in 2010. “I want to be part of the national team, but it is what it is. I have to first fix myself as well as be healthy.
“Last year I just came from the European Championship to training camp. I think it was really too much on my body. It was really bad, and I kind of rushed myself to come back the first game of the season. It was like a snowball. It gets worse and worse, and I never find myself 100%. Especially when you have a season like that, everybody was looking for some positive things. … This summer I spent a lot of time fixing my ankle. Hopefully this season I start on a new page, with a lot of energy and power.”
“We have to build but at the same time we have to win the games,” Ilyasova said of the approach a young Bucks team must have. “This is part of the business. It’s going to be really hard in the beginning. We’ve got a lot of young guys, new coaches. It will take time to know each other again. It’s all about the coaching. If we’re going to be in the right direction, we have the potential to do some good things.”
