Minnesota Timberwolves: 10 forward options in free agency

1. Ersan Ilyasova

It was only about five years ago that Milwaukee vastly overpaid Ersan Ilyasova, meaning that for a period of time, the Turkish forward was largely underrated as a player.

Ilyasova has been a journeyman over the past few seasons, being traded five times in three seasons, and last year getting waived by Atlanta and rejoining Philadelphia, where he had played briefly the year prior, for the stretch run.

He’s always been a good 3-point shooter, with a career mark of 36.6 percent, and a good rebounder, with a career rebound rate of 13.6 percent. He’s largely a power forward and at 6-foot-10 is too big to play the three, but has some positional versatility and is a good enough defender to hold his own in the pick-and-roll. (Also, he’s not a center in any way, shape, or form, which precluded him from our prior list.)

Ilyasova was a valuable member of this spring’s Sixers squad that reached the second round of the playoffs. His unique combination of rebounding ability and 3-point shooting has made him, in some ways, a Kevin Love-lite option for playoff contenders over the past several years.

The one trick with Ilyasova is that he’s always averaged well north of 20 minutes per game in his career, and he almost certainly wouldn’t get that kind of run in Minnesota, especially without the ability to truly play the three or the five positions.

Next: 5 options at center for the Timberwolves in free agency

We’ll be back later on Saturday with a look at the wing players with the ability to fill in at the two-spot that the Timberwolves might take a look at in the coming days.