By Jimmy Carlton Sportswriter Published Jul 17, 2018 at 11:51 AM

The Milwaukee Bucks have officially reunited with forward Ersan Ilyasova.

The team on Monday announced Ilyasova’s signing, which was reported on June 30, early in the free-agency period, as a three-year contract worth about $21 million. The Bucks did not disclose financial terms of the agreement.

"Ersan is a high-character, veteran player who gives our team an additional shooter to help spread the court," said general manager Jon Horst. "He has a team-first mentality and brings toughness and energy to both ends of the floor."

The deal brings the 10-year veteran, yet again, back to Milwaukee, which originally selected him with the 36th pick in the 2005 NBA Draft. Ilyasova has played seven seasons with the Bucks over two stints, appearing in 453 games in 2006-07 and 2009-15. 

With Milwaukee, he has career averages of 10.7 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game, while shooting 44.7 percent from the field and 37.0 percent on 3-pointers. In 2011-12 with the Bucks, Ilyasova made 45.5 percent of his 3-point attempts, which ranked second in the NBA and stands as the fourth-best single-season mark in franchise history.

After starting last year with the Hawks, the 6-foot-10 Ilyasova finished the season with the 76ers, appearing in 23 games and averaging 10.8 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 24.1 minutes.

For his career, Ilyasova, 31, has played in 678 career games with Milwaukee, Detroit, Orlando, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia and Atlanta, with career marks of 11.0 points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game, while shooting 44.3 percent from the field and 36.6 percent from beyond the arc. The Turkish native also played two seasons internationally with FC Barcelona Lassa (Spain) in 2007-09, before rejoining the Bucks. 

"We are very excited to have him and his family back in Milwaukee," Horst said.

Ilyasova will take some of the frontcourt minutes vacated by Jabari Parker, who signed with the Chicago Bulls on Saturday. On Monday, center Marshall Plumlee posted on Instagram that he was no longer with the Bucks, thanking the organization after spending last season on a two-way contract.

Jimmy Carlton Sportswriter

Born in Milwaukee but a product of Shorewood High School (go ‘Hounds!) and Northwestern University (go ‘Cats!), Jimmy never knew the schoolboy bliss of cheering for a winning football, basketball or baseball team. So he ditched being a fan in order to cover sports professionally - occasionally objectively, always passionately. He's lived in Chicago, New York and Dallas, but now resides again in his beloved Brew City and is an ardent attacker of the notorious Milwaukee Inferiority Complex.

After interning at print publications like Birds and Blooms (official motto: "America's #1 backyard birding and gardening magazine!"), Sports Illustrated (unofficial motto: "Subscribe and save up to 90% off the cover price!") and The Dallas Morning News (a newspaper!), Jimmy worked for web outlets like CBSSports.com, where he was a Packers beat reporter, and FOX Sports Wisconsin, where he managed digital content. He's a proponent and frequent user of em dashes, parenthetical asides, descriptive appositives and, really, anything that makes his sentences longer and more needlessly complex.

Jimmy appreciates references to late '90s Brewers and Bucks players and is the curator of the unofficial John Jaha Hall of Fame. He also enjoys running, biking and soccer, but isn't too annoying about them. He writes about sports - both mainstream and unconventional - and non-sports, including history, music, food, art and even golf (just kidding!), and welcomes reader suggestions for off-the-beaten-path story ideas.