The Official Yi Jianlian Shrine

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

teammy1, I agree Yi's probably a great practice player but I seriously doubt anything's wrong with his basketball IQ.

YiOF, I think you are spot on that Yi's not a finisher at the rim despite his length and athleticism. Yi moves well but his vert is not great and he doesn't throw it down quickly or with force. Like you said he will settle for jumpers.

My take is Yi is probably very self-critical and afraid of making mistakes. He seems to withdraw quickly and submissively once his confidence is dashed. Yi's not the kind of guy to say f it, I'll get them next time when something goes wrong. His game shows he goes into a shell.

The physical part is he's a finesse big that can't finish in traffic. Mentally, he seems real uptight about failure. Just looking at him at his best my belief is Yi could drop 40 in an NBA game if you can just get him mad enough and/or confident.

I think Jianlian can improve significantly and have his best season with the Wizards if he improves his mental focus each game. Yi needs to focus on using superior technique on the boards whenever he's on the court. Yi understands where to be to provide help defense--he needs to execute in games with consistency. Yi needs to always run hard getting out in transition for lobs. MOST OF ALL: Yi needs to conciously attempt to take two step or three steps closer to the basket on his jumper whenever possible. If he takes more 12-18 footers instead of 18-22 footers, Yi would be much more effective. Alternatively, whenever he's close to the three-point line YI needs intentionally step back and shoot the three. Yi is a jump shooter who needs to maximize the shots he takes. If he focuses on these few things Yi can become a much better player.

Coaches just need to praise the guy and keep him keyed in to where he should shoot from and on boxing out, using what he's learned about rebounding, and playing with confidence and energy. Yi's passion for the game needs to be stronger.

Since he likes the city, the owner's reached out to him, Flip raves about him, and Yi likes his teammates; what needs to be emphasized is all Yi needs to do is to play with a fire and a passion like he did for China in FIBA play. Yi is a good utility player who can really help the Wizards if he's into it.

[willbcocks]

by the same token i was VERY disappointed with McGee. I expected to see some progress in his offensive game. If you pass him the ball on the post he's got no idea what to do with it. All his points came on put backs and alley-oops from John Wall.

Mcgee doesn't need to do anything else on offense. I have faith in Wall and want the ball in his hands as much as possible. If we want an option in the post, Blatche has shown himself more than capable. And on top of those two we have Gil!

All we need from Mcgee on offense is more "good Mcgee," the guy who crashes the boards, moves through the lane, and looks to sneak behind the defense. With Wall at the point, Mcgee will get 15pts per 36min just playing that role, and those points will be high efficiency, within the flow of the offense, and not take away from other's touches.

Mcgee needs to focus on defensive positioning, defensive rebounding, and setting screens.

[NOODLESTYLE]

A part of Yi's weaknesses that affect his performance have always seemed to be his confidence and how involved he is in the offense. A reason why Yi performed so well during the WC was because he was the main focus in the Chinese National team offense. Compare that to when Yao was the main focus on the NT during the Olympics, and there were many times people were wondering if Yi would step up and perform at a higher level. It's interesting to note because Lakers commentators say similar things about Bynum with the Lakers, if he's not scoring and involved in the offense then it would also affect his mentality on the defensive end as well.

The Bucks and Nets situation were complicated because those teams were still in turmoil, Yi had either young or rookie coaches during that time. The point guards Yi got to play with weren't necessarily "Pass first" pgs either. I would say though when Kiki took over, he tried to give Yi a lot of opportunities to shine and there were games where he had solid numbers. At the same time, it was really how Yi got those points. Jumpshots and slightly aggressive while going into the paint. Training with Thorpe may have been the best thing for Yi, since he recognized some key factors that helped improve Yi mentally.

I think what is important for Yi now is consistency and continuing to stay aggressive. Rafer Alston said while he was playing with Yi with the Nets, that the difference between Yao and Yi is that Yi is a introvert and will be very hard on himself after a bad game. While Yao will be right back in the gym trying to improve and not let the bad game affect his mentality negatively. The Wizards situation does seem to be a good fit for Yi...experienced coach, 2 solid PGs in Wall and Hinrich and a fast paced offense that caters to Yi's strengths....but it still comes down to if Yi can continue to perform consistently? since he has yet to show he can do that in the NBA.

[NOODLESTYLE]

John Wall did to Yi what Kobe did to Bynum and fell into this knee. Bynum was projected to be out 8-12 weeks, but I think he was out longer.

Story of Yi's career, just when he's showing there might be some consistency and being comfortable with the team...there's an injury.

Yi's injury didn't look as Bynum though or at least didn't look as in much pain. When Bynum was down, I thought it was all over until Lakers got Gasol

[Hoopalotta]

I need to get a better look at it as my feed got really choppy, but it didn't look too bad. Minor hyper extension maybe?

[NOODLESTYLE]

I need to get a better look at it as my feed got really choppy, but it didn't look too bad. Minor hyper extension maybe?

That's what I was thinking, it didn't look too bad or it could have been for the fact that Yi didn't look in too much pain. The MRI might show different though.

[20MexicanosIn1Van]

The Yi injury could mean one of two things. Either Seraphin gets his minutes or Armstrong gets his minutes. I fear for the latter.

[pennyliu123]

Yi is really unlucky. I hope that he will be back soon.

[nate33]

The Yi injury could mean one of two things. Either Seraphin gets his minutes or Armstrong gets his minutes. I fear for the latter.

Booker will get his minutes.

[JonathanJoseph]

The Yi injury could mean one of two things. Either Seraphin gets his minutes or Armstrong gets his minutes. I fear for the latter.

Booker will get his minutes.

Certainly, as he did vs the Bulls.

But if this moves into additional games, I'll be curious to see if Seraphin gets a quick look. Not because he's ready (which he is admittedly not), but because Flip hates playing Armstrong as much as we hate seeing him. You can tell that Flip is thoroughly frustrated with all of the frontcourt and sees Armstrong as a painful lesser of evils.

Get well soon Yi, I really don't want to see more Armstrong.

[Hoopalotta]

So, it's not serious....

the Wizards also lost Yi Jianlian and Andray Blatche to knee injuries. Yi was taken out in the third period, when Wall took a charge on Luol Deng and fell directly on Yi's right knee.

Yi didn't move for several minutes, laying on the ground and simply holding his knee until he was assisted off the court by Kevin Seraphin and Hamady Ndiaye. After the game, Yi was able to smile with relief after the injury proved to be less serious than it initially felt. "It hurt right away, took a few minutes, cool down a little bit, felt a little bit better," said Yi, who had a bone bruise and a hyperextended right knee. "Ligament, MCL is fine."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/wizard ... -benc.html

[penbeast0]

I see a lot of mental stuff here about Yi . . . . how did he come out on the left field analysis thread (one of my all-time favs here)?

Also, when does this change from a Shrine thread based on his hard rebounding preseason to an Amazingly Sucky thread based on his reverting to jump shooting softie in the regular season if current trends continue (though he has had that one decent game)?