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Summary
I had the Jazz as one of the fits for Ilyasova last year in my predictions, so I wasn't surprised that they signed him mid-way through this season. Ilyasova is a bit of a tweener, in that he's not a really a power forward considering most power forwards are more versatile than Ilyasova, and he's certainly not a center considering he doesn't provide rim protection. While he's not a rim protector in the traditional sense, he does protect the rim by taking a lot of charges.

I think there are certain scenarios where you could play Ilyasova at center, but he's probably best served to be a power forward against backup units that don't have as dynamic of forwards that Ilyasova has to defend in space. Due to his shooting ability and overall basketball IQ, I think Ilyasova can still contribute, but I wouldn't want to give him more than the minimum at this point in his career.
 
Cap Considerations
Ilyasova will be an unrestricted free agent with a $1.7 million cap hold and Non-Bird Rights. This means that the highest starting salary the Jazz could offer him using the Non-Bird Exception is $3.2 million. This would likely be enough to retain Ilyasova, since he settled for the (pro-rated) minimum to come to Utah. Alternatively, the Jazz could use their Mid-Level Exception or Bi-Annual Exception to re-sign Ilyasova if he demands more than $3.2 million.
 
Other teams will have multiple ways to sign Ilyasova as even teams without cap space could possibly use any of the Non-Taxpayer MLE, Taxpayer MLE, or even the Room MLE or Bi-Annual Exception to sign him. It's also likely that Howard only gets minimum offers.

Potential Teams: Jazz, Celtics, Pacers, Wizards, Spurs

Predicted Contract: 1-year, $2.6 million ($1.7 million cap hit) with the Jazz

Last updated: 7/5/2021

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