Rookie power forward Yi Jianlian is losing playing time since returning from an injury. He is losing minutes to Charlie Villanueva who really has played well with the additional minutes he got when Yi was hurt. Yi has now played in 57 games (49 starts) this season for the Bucks and he is averaging 25.6 minutes, 9.0 points, 5.4 rebounds and 0.9 assists per game. Yi is shooting 43.4% from the floor and 83.8% from the free throw line this season. Yi will have to improve to get more playing time as Villanueva has taken his starting job for now. The other Bucks rookie (Ramon Sessions) has yet to play in a game for the team.

Many experts didn’t like the Bucks pick of Jianlian Yi in the first round of the draft but he’s proving to be a solid player with a big upside. Yi has played in 27 games so far this season and he is averaging 27.9 minutes, 10.9 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1.0 assist and 1.0 block per game. He also has been a solid shooter so far this season as he’s hitting 46.7% from the floor and 82.7% from the free throw line. Expect him to improve as the season goes on.

I have mistakenly reported that Ersan Ilyasova was a rookie even though he was drafted in 2005. With that in mind, the Bucks rookie class was not that impressive. Forward David Noel played in 68 games this season and he averaged 11.6 minutes, 2.7 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.0 assist per game. Point guard Lynn Greer played in 41 games this season and he averaged 10.5 minutes, 4.1 points, 0.7 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game. Forward Damir Markota played in 30 games this season and he averaged 5.7 minutes, 1.7 points, 1.0 rebound and 0.2 assists per game. Markota only shot 36.5% from the floor. Greer looks like he could be a decent backup point guard in the future for the Bucks and the other two guys will probably be players that are set up low on the Bucks depth chart.

With all of the injuries the Bucks have suffered they are giving Ersan Ilyasova some big minutes, now they need him to produce. In April, Ilyasova has played in 7 games and he’s averaged 8.6 points, 3.6 rebounds and 1.0 assist per game. He’s only shooting 37.7% from the floor and he’s 6 for 21 (28.6%) from three-point range.Â

None of the four rookies on the Bucks current roster is shooting over 40% from the floor. The best one of the bunch has been forward Ersan Ilyasova. Ilyasova has played in 35 games and is averaging 14.9 minutes, 5.9 points, 3.1 rebounds and 0.8 assists. Ilyasova is shooting 35.7% from the floor and 31.8% from three point range and those are pretty poor percentages.

Small forward David Noel is next in line for the Bucks. He has played in 35 games and is averaging 10.0 minutes, 2.3 points, 1.5 rebounds and 0.8 assists. Noel has hit only 39.5% of his shots from the floor and he’ll need to improve that if he wants to stick around in the NBA.

Forward Damir Markota has played in 20 games and is averaging 3.8 minutes, 1.4 points, 0.5 rebounds and 0.2 assists. He’s only hit 39.3% of his shots from the floor, but in fairness to him, he hasn’t played a lot of minutes.

Guard Lynn Greer hasn’t played very much for the Bucks. He’s played in 10 games and is averaging 6.9 minutes, 1.7 points, 0.2 rebounds and 1.0 assists. He has only hit 30.4% of his shots from the floor.