RealGM

"I think that he's more mature after playing here one year, understanding exactly what he's going to need to do to maintain" his energy, Rod Thorn reasoned. "He'll probably play more minutes for us than Milwaukee. We'll see how that goes.

"You know, he's bigger," he added, as if that is some secret to stamina. "He's 11 pounds bigger than he was this time last year. And just going through it, seeing how it works. This is a different team than he played on. His team played very, very quickly. So it's going to be a little big different style here than the one he played on. I don't know if you ever handle that if you're playing 12 months a year as well as you could if you play eight or nine months a year. But he's a young guy. I think he'll handle it well."

"A young Kevin Garnett," Bobby Simmons said of Yi Jianlian. "I had actually seen Kevin play in high school, and he was very athletic, he's capable of making shots and making plays because he was more agile than everyone else."

If that actually comes close to being accurate, we'll be the first to say it: Bobby Simmons is going to make a helluva GM someday. And if he's wrong, he can always get a job as Bill Walton's hyperbole coach.

kamaze wrote:Don't everybody post at the same time....

kamaze wrote:That's a good idea Tang_Man get a Chineese-American guy to help out Yi. Doeses he speak English good? Maybe one of the Yi fans know.

kamaze wrote:That's a good idea Tang_Man get a Chineese-American guy to help out Yi. Doeses he speak English good? Maybe one of the Yi fans know.

Tang_Man wrote:

kamaze wrote:That's a good idea Tang_Man get a Chineese-American guy to help out Yi. Doeses he speak English good? Maybe one of the Yi fans know.

Did you not watch his press conference? His english is still not good enough to handle a press conference. It must be frustrating as hell for all the press people. His translator was even worst. The guy was stuttering and just seen like a bag of nerves. Surely they could have found someone better. Colin Pine, Yao's translator during his rookie season did a hell of a job better than any of the translators Yi has had thus far. His english is good enough to comunicate with his teammates and coaches though, which is a good thing.

Anyway when I said Yi needs to get someone to work with him personnally, I mean a basketball mentor. Like what Patrick Ewing did with Yao and Kareem with Andrew Bynum. Yi need someone to show him how to hold his position in the post, how to protect the ball from being strip by swarming defenders, how to position himself defensively etc. Yao gave Ewing endorsement as personnel trainer. Maybe Yi should look at hiring his services.

BTW, Yi does have a personnel trainer working with him at the moment. The guy was selected by his agent. However I have little clue to as who this guy is and what his basketball credentials are.