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Milwaukee Bucks big man Ersan Ilyasova will be sidelined indefinitely after undergoing surgery to repair a broken nose, according to the team.
Ilyasova suffered the injury during practice earlier in the week.
This is actually a fairly significant loss for the Bucks. On paper, Ilyasova's numbers don't jump out at you. He is averaging 7.5 points and 5.5 rebounds over 19.9 minutes per game while shooting 43 percent from the floor, 35.9 percent from 3-point range and 87.5 percent from the free-throw line.
However, Ilyasova is one of Milwaukee's best floor spacers and often provides Giannis Antetokounmpo with less restricted driving lanes as a result of his gravity on the perimeter.
The 31-year-old is in his third stint with the Bucks. He was originally selected by Milwaukee in the second round (36th pick overall) of the 2005 NBA Draft out of Turkey.
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Ilyasova came over to the Bucks in 2006-07, playing in 66 games during his rookie campaign and registering 6.1 points and 2.9 boards a night. He then went to play in Spain for two years before returning to Milwaukee in 2009-10.
Ilyasova then proceeded to spend the next six years with the Bucks, averaging double figures in five of those six seasons. He posted a career-high 13.2 points per game in 2012-13, making 44.4 percent of his long-distance tries.
He then bounced around between the Detroit Pistons, Orlando Magic, Oklahoma City Thunder, Atlanta Hawks and Philadelphia 76ers before finally arriving back in Milwaukee this year.
Ilyasova owns career averages of 10.8 points and 5.2 rebounds a night, making 44.2 percent of his field goals and 36.5 percent of his triples.
