Report: Sixers Trade Jerami Grant for Ersan Ilyasova, Pick
The Sixers traded Jerami Grant for Ersan Ilyasova and a conditional first round draft pick. | Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
The Philadelphia 76ers have traded Jerami Grant for Ersan Ilyasova and a conditional future draft pick, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports’ The Vertical. A league source has confirmed the trade to Philadelphia magazine.
The first round pick the 76ers are getting in return is a conditional first round pick, top-20 protected in the 2020 NBA draft, according to a league source. If the pick is not conveyed it will convert to two second-round draft picks, which the Sixers will receive in the 2022 and 2023 drafts.
Grant has two years remaining on his contract, both at around $1 million annually, with 2016-17 being slightly under $1 million and 2017-18 slightly over $1 million. Ilyasova is on the final year of a 5 year, $40 million contract he signed in the summer of 2012 and will be paid $8.4 million this season, which the 76ers can adsorb because they were roughly $27 million under the salary cap.
Ilyasova is yet another big man to add to the frontcourt rotation, albeit this time one who can shoot a little bit, as Ilyasova is a career 36.9 percent three-point shooter. He has started the season off cold from downtown, connecting on just 25 percent of his 12 three-point attempts so far, but shot 38.9 percent from three-point range in 2014-15 and 37.1 percent from deep last season. He has also been a solid defensive rebounder throughout his career, hauling down 4.1 defensive rebounds in a little over 24 minutes per game for his career.
Ilyasova has appeared in 530 games, 313 starts, since being drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks in the second round of the 2005 NBA draft, with career averages of 10.6 points and 6.0 rebounds in 24.1 minutes per game.
Oklahoma City owes the Utah Jazz a lottery-protected first round draft pick in the 2018 draft, which means the earliest the Sixers could receive this pick would be 2020.
According to Marc Stein of ESPN, which a league source confirmed, the Sixers intend to keep Ilyasova, and wanted a stretch-four to help space the floor for Joel Embiid and Jahlil Okafor, hoping to improve the team’s floor spacing and offensive execution. With Nerlens Noel and Ben Simmons out because of injury, Ilyasova will likely split time at the power forward spot with rookie Dario Saric.
Derek Bodner covers the 76ers for Philadelphia magazine’s Sixers Post. Follow @DerekBodnerNBA on Twitter.
