Ranking the 7 worst Pistons starters of the Andre Drummond era
#6: Ersan Ilyasova, 2015-16
Remember this guy? One of the many mediocre players that Stan Van Gundy tried to use as a stretch and floor spacer during the Andre Drummond era. Ilyasova was another guy who wasn’t terrible and probably should have been a role player on a good team instead of a key part of the rotation of an ok one.
This team did go 44-38, the only winning season of Drummond’s career with the Pistons, with Ilyasova starting 52 games and averaging 11 points and five rebounds per contest, hardly eye-popping numbers. He was a stretch who shot 36 percent from 3-point range, not terrible, but not exactly forcing defenders away from the hoop to defend him.
The Pistons were eventually swept in the first round of the playoffs, namely because they came up against LeBron James and had to defend him with a 19-year-old rookie and a slew-footed power forward named Ersan.