Yi Talk (Merging) Current Topic: Is Yi A Legit Talent?

[St.Nick]

Yeah, the joker that was right about Yi last year.

[MnM_McgradyMing]

Yeah, the joker that was right about Yi last year.

Yeah the same old joker, lol, but I do see that St Nick has lightened up on his criticism of Yi and has actually lightened up slightly. Yi is a better rebounder than you think, averaging 8.2 in 27 minutes, is a lot more athletic that you give credit for, Yi is more agile and moves runs swiftly rather than explosive like Amare. Yi also has the ability to play in the post but at the moment is still physically weak.

[tidbit]

It's painful to watch yi plays sometimes..cause I know he got the talent and size.. sometimes I think he is still tying to get comfortable with the speed and physical of the nba games.. ..Milwaukees traded Dirk Nowitzki away after 3 or 4 years and now they regret it..

Yi need to put 10 to 15 lbs of muscle...

lets see in year 3 and 4...

Im not sure if it's what you meant or not, but Milwaukee dealt Dirk in a deal arranged prior to even drafting him, not three or four years. Dirk was never going to be a Buck.

As for everything else, you're 100% correct. I think it's the physicality more than anything else. In China he generally was the biggest and most athletic player on the floor. In the NBA, he's just not. He's got a unique skill set, it's just a matter of him putting it together. Yi REALLY needs an offseason without any national team obligations. He can put on the weight he needs and he can tune the parts of his game he needs to excel. He certainly didn't get that this past summer. Once he does, look out.

Dirk is lucky to develop himself in an open team, and it seems that Yi have got his team too.

When it comes to the CNteam, I don't think Yi suffered a lot in this summer, if he didnot play for CNteam, He would play by himself or spend some time on business, or have a rest to put on some fat ?
Played for CNteam in olympics, he can put on weight too, get more experience, etc.

As a player, one can't complain playing for his national team...Yao, 7' 6'' tall, he play a lot too.

Do you know Karman? have played with Dirk for German this summer, did they complain?

To have a rest is important, but no as important as you think of.

[YiOF]

I don't even need to read St.Nick's post to know what it is about. I don't really understand his die hard hatred for Yi for multitude of reasons. He's not the only foreign or U.S. player that hasn't lived up to supposed potential. He's never played on the Warriors team or even related to the warriors in anyway. St.Nick's blind hatred is obviously originated from something non-basketball related. so what are you? oh, that's right, nobody really cares. Just take your worthless joker ass back to Golden State board and stop annoying people.

[6_Rings]

lol @ St Nick for writing off Yi this early in his career. sure the dude is currently inconsistent but experience and PT will definitely help him in that department as well as good coaching. situational backup? meh those are reserved for veterans or ex-superstars imho.

besides, i recall St. Nick writing off Yi as a bust last season and now he is Van-horn-like. dude ur schtick is getting old.

[6_Rings]

^ dude Italians are white, if you write something even mildly offensive about non-whites it's racist capice?

[tidbit]

When I see Yi, I don't see the comparison's to Dirk and I don't think he will ever be a legit all star player.

The player that does come to mind everytime I see Yi play though is Keith Van Horn. They both have great shooting touches, both can rebound pretty well, both were defensive liabilities and they both like to raise there arms after making a three pointer. Both also have a tendency to do a fancy lay up instead of a hard rim rattling dunk.

Yi is more quick.
and he is more like to dunk than to make a layup, also more aggressive.

BUT he is no access to the rim because of his skinny upper side.

[St.Nick]

lol @ St Nick for writing off Yi this early in his career. sure the dude is currently inconsistent but experience and PT will definitely help him in that department as well as good coaching. situational backup? meh those are reserved for veterans or ex-superstars imho.

besides, i recall St. Nick writing off Yi as a bust last season and now he is Van-horn-like. dude ur schtick is getting old.

lol@dude!! Wassup!?

Anyways, Van Horn-lite = 10/6 and a crappy starter.

Sorry, but being the #6 pick in that deep 2007 draft and being proclaimed an all-star by his fans means that being Van Horn-lite is being a bust.

[YiOF]

Well, tonight might have been Exhibit A in Yi's case for not only being a legit talent, but an elite one.

Seriously, look at this line:

26 points (on 7/11 FG, 5-6 FT and 5-6 3PT), 10 rebounds, 4 assists (to only 2 turnovers) and a block in 37 minutes.

Our Devin-less team may not have been able to defeat the mighty mighty Miami Heat ( ), but I am impressed with this type of performance out of Jianlian.

It's a great line, no doubt, but with the way he's playing, it'll be an anomaly. He's not going to make 5 threes every game. In looking at the shot chart, he took one shot in the paint during his 37 minutes of play. That's not a good sign.

He had a huge game against Charlotte last year too.
29 points 10 rebounds 3 assists 3 steals 1 block 14/17 from the field 2 TO's

Numbers don't really tell the whole story. The scoring is hardly the reason why he had a good game. Of course he won't make 5 out of 6 threes every game, but if you watched Yi's game this year, despite the scoring inconsistency, you would notice a lot of improvements in his game. From his rebounding, ball handling, passing to ability to take contact. He has improved a little bit of everything across the board.

Last year, Yi had some 10+ rebounding games, but mostly because the ball bounced to his direction more times that game. This year, I saw him getting up high and pull down rebounds in traffic, I saw him stretching out to take boards out of his area. you can say his back to back double digit rebound games are just a fluke, but I definitely saw improvement.

He's much more comfortable with dribbling with either hand and much more confident in passing in traffic. you don't need to be an expert to see that. there is no more holding the ball 5-6 seconds to wait for someone to get open. he doesn't look lost when getting the ball outside the 3 point line, which is a huge change from what he did at Milwaukee.

His hands appeared to be better. Whether it was injury or whatever, it was hard to watch sometimes last year when the ball just bounce off his stone hands. It happened way less this year through 6 games, hope that keeps up.

Now the most encouraging thing I saw is that I think Yi realized that the PF spot is not a finesse position, at least not on the defensive end. He showed a lot of toughness and much better at taking contact from some of the big bodied PFs. Against Amare, or Etan Thamas this year, he did not get abused down low like he did last year.

With improvements mentioned, he still has many weaknesses that he needs to work on. One of the biggest weakness I saw is his lack of body control. sure he can jump high and run fast, but without the body control, it won't be any good. He can drive past his man defender, but can't avoid the help defender or finish at the basket. He can jump up high and try to dunk the ball, but if there is someone in the way to block him, he can't adjust he shot to avoid the block. All of these are due to the lack of body control. Maybe adding some more upper body muscles will help, but who knows.

He still needs to work on creating his own shot, whether it is in the post or a jump shot. If he wants to get to the next level, he can't just wait for someone else to create for him. Lets just hope he can follow Dirk's foot steps.

[6_Rings]

lol @ St Nick for writing off Yi this early in his career. sure the dude is currently inconsistent but experience and PT will definitely help him in that department as well as good coaching. situational backup? meh those are reserved for veterans or ex-superstars imho.

besides, i recall St. Nick writing off Yi as a bust last season and now he is Van-horn-like. dude ur schtick is getting old.

lol@dude!! Wassup!?

Anyways, Van Horn-lite = 10/6 and a crappy starter.

Sorry, but being the #6 pick in that deep 2007 draft and being proclaimed an all-star by his fans means that being Van Horn-lite is being a bust.

haha ur the the lolerz.

10/6 and crappy? are you referring to Van horn in his sophomore year or when he was on the decline. lol

97-98 NJN 62 62 37.5 0.426 0.308 0.846 2.3 4.3 6.6 1.7 1.0 0.4 2.65 3.50 19.7
98-99 NJN 42 42 37.5 0.428 0.302 0.859 2.7 5.8 8.5 1.5 1.0 1.3 3.17 3.20 21.8

maybe you meant Dallas years

05-06 DAL 53 0 20.6 0.424 0.368 0.832 1.0 2.6 3.6 0.7 0.6 0.2 1.34 2.30 8.9

and he wasn't even a starter!

troll!

and wait 2007 is deep? you meant that chucker Durant? lol

[tidbit]

although ups and downs, Yi's satics is impressive:
6games average

11.7 pts, 8.2rbs in 28mins. and last season is
8.2 pts, 5.2 rbs in 25mins.

big progress...

[tidbit]

lol @ St Nick for writing off Yi this early in his career. sure the dude is currently inconsistent but experience and PT will definitely help him in that department as well as good coaching. situational backup? meh those are reserved for veterans or ex-superstars imho.

besides, i recall St. Nick writing off Yi as a bust last season and now he is Van-horn-like. dude ur schtick is getting old.

That is no important, just some different noise, he like to fool himself to force Yi to make progress, I support him.

[EFF]

When someone really is a racist, there is no question about it. If there needs to be some sort of convincing debate about his racism, then its likely not true.

That is simply untrue. Let's not be naive.

[EFF]

I think Yi would get to the next level in his early career if he developed better ball handling skills. More than strength, and assuming the shooting will be there, if he can pose a driving threat, he could easily start averaging 15-18 points a game. Right now, he takes about 2 dribbles and has to pick it up but if he doesn't have to and his ball handling started to resemble something more like chris bosh's, he could be pretty special.

it's not about him bulking up i dont think. We've seen wiry guys succeed in this league like bosh, garnett, dirk, gayshaun prince. He's not Shaun livingston thin so i think he's ok. For now, he just needs to get more skilled.

[Rallyks]

http://www.nj.com/nets/index.ssf/2008/1 ... recap.html

Let's be positive for a change, because there's no sense kicking them until we witness a letdown in effort.

Uh, we all in agreement on that?

Stop that infernal muttering, you sound deranged.

# Cheers and Huzzahs all around for Yi Jianlian, but all those bombs he dropped on the Miami defense were barely half the story.

Of course he can shoot, of course he can score. He's going to have hundreds of games in which we'll be reminded of that.

The real eye-openers, the most important facets, pertained to dirty work. The four-spot is not a finesse position, and for once, he seemed to get it.

He grabbed double-digit boards for the second straight game, and a bunch of them were out of his area -- pursuit boards, in traffic.

And once the second half opened, you heard Michael Beasley's name once, and only in this kind of context: "What the hell ever happened to Michael Beasley -- didn't he have 15 points in the first half?"

Beasley is a slippery handful, but the Nets' kid battled him like crazy, bodied up on him, met him high and early, pushed him off his spots and out of his comfort zone.

Look at the numbers again: 24-10-4. And one block, though we think the scorer cheated him out of a second.

"His talent level is through the roof," Dooling said.

Yeah, but for once, his toughness and determination matched his talent level, and that's the point.

It was the best game of his career, and only half of it was about his jump shot.

# The franchise record for 3-pointers in a game is 17, and it took an overtime to set that mark. Safe prediction: Somewhere along the way this season, that record will fall. They had 13 last night, even without their best drive-and-kick delivery man, and they still haven't come close to exploring the potential of this offense yet.

# Oh, four guys had multiple 3's, led by Yi's 5-for-6. Somebody should check last year's box scores and see if they've done that lately.

# Vince took the loss harder than anyone, which is understandable, given his two turnovers in the last 52 seconds.

An example of his gloom: Somebody threw him an alley-oop to say something nice about Yi, and it turned into a smackdown of Brook Lopez.

"I think he played well, shot the ball well, showed some aggression," VC said. "We were getting some positive things. Brook didn't play too well tonight, he got frustrated. . . ."

And then he made a double-reverse pivot and went on (and on) about how they have to "support each other through good times and bad," and all that rot.

Crafty segue, eh?

He's right, of course. It's getting hard to overlook some of Lopez's loopy mistakes. This time, he had three turnovers in 14 minutes, and two were traveling violations on first-quarter postups - both of them a case of being too eager to go at Joel Anthony, perhaps. But the game went downhill for him from there.

# Three games and counting: We haven't seen Yi turn his back to avoid contact against a transition push since the Golden State game. Yes, we're charting this please-don't-hurt-me stuff.

[lurkingobeiscity]

Last game was a bit of fools gold concerning Yi offensively. I saw a lot of things I did not like at all, such as his penchant for drifting to the 3pt line instead of cutting across the lane or rolling to the basket after a pick. His defense and rebounding showed a lot of promise though. Confidence was good too.

[slammyhome]

yi drifting to the 3 point line could be what he is told to do, but i can see yi cutting to the basket next game a little more, but as long as yi continues to attack the boards i am happy, i like to see him work on pulling up for a short jumper if the help defense cuts of the lane. i've followed yi when he played in the chinese pro league, he was not even the first option when he played in china when he started with the team, his game improved every year, i hope his career with the nets would be the same. i read a article today, he says understands some night his shooting will be off but rebounding is something that has to been done every game, i was very please to see that quote from yi, he's getting better at boxing out on rebounding too, so somebody is doing a good coaching job with his rebounding fundementals.

[MnM_McgradyMing]

Van Horn was a pretty good player iin his prime, Yi is currently averaging more than 10/6!

[buckybadgerfan]

Nets Fans, Don't be fooled by Bucks fans into thinking Yi is a bust this early in his career.
They're like the bitter ex-wife--->Yes the dreaded bitter ex-wife syndrome. Their 'guy' leaves Milwaukee one-by-one (Jabbar to LA, Allen to Seattle, Nowitzki given to Dallas, now Yi to Jersey) so they follow them into the new forums just to spew bitterness and loathing.

Fact is Yi didn't like playing in Milwaukee last year and quite possibly sabotaged his future there claiming minor injuries and giving poor effort.

Fact is this year so far Yi averages equal or better numbers than CV despite Bucks fans continuing to insist Yi's more a bust then anything. Next they'll probably argue per 48 min stats.... losers in denial.

IMO Yi isn't a star but he's no chump. So far it's looking to be a decent trade for the Nets.

Peace.

---And about Skones comment "I Win, You Lose". Dude!! I must be talking to a 12 year old!
And quoting Kobe to dis me, haha. Kobe now talking for you because you're not man enough? haha!!

Get a clue boys. If you claim your comments have nothing to do with racism then why identify "the Chinese fans" as the problem we must "deal with". And if Yi is such a bust then why chase his fans to this board to aggravate them (St Nick, RedBogutCV)? Talking about bad manners by Chinese fans? You guys are the ultimate bigots...

[howe070523]

I don't think Yi is 20 years old, guys. I'm pretty certain that a vast majority of fans-- outside of NJ, MIL, and China-- believe that he is more like 24 or 25 years old. Its hard to tell just by looking at his baby face, but his legs are incredibly defined for someone that is only "20 years old."

And I just don't see how he could have been playing for several seasons in the CBL, making him only 15-16 years old when he started.

Also keep in mind, when he was 14 years old he was 6'11. Did he only grow 1-2 inches from age 14 to age 19? Not likely.

Like Ive stated a couple times, if you think hes not 20, prove it.
Dont use those (Please Use More Appropriate Word) interviews from Yi's previous teammate where he was asked "how old do you think Yi really is" as an evidence please.
and now ur talking about legs...Ok, Ok, you got it..mind if I ask you to take a second look of guys like DW, Oden, King James .... what their LEGs looked like at the age of 20? or you wanna talk about Yao's leg when hes 20? I cant believe you actually tried to use that to go against Yi.

Yi played 4 seasons in the CBA, yes he started off playing at the age of 15, thats understandable given his athleticism. Xu(another chinese player) started playing when he was 14, Bater started playing when he was 16... cuz in China you dont have to be university educated to play professional bball.