We need to get back to he’s being a rookie. He was out of position on offense most of the game. He was hoisting wide-open fade-away 3’s that fell short from the shooting guard’s spot. Some of this has to be blamed on his coaches as well. I’d want my seven-footer to complement Yao, not to play at half-court.

When Yao retired, he went low-post and dominated the NBA non-starting all-stars. I’ll take that. I love Jefferson, he is a great athlete and a great basketball player. But he also took a while to develop, and he will never be the impact player that Yi can be.

Come on Yehyeh, RJ had an immediate positive impact on the Nets and was starting on a very good team in his second year. Yi would have been the 12th or 13th man on that team.

keep it up, yehyeh. Thank god there is another voice of reason out there. RJ will NEVER be what Yi COULD be, we just have to wait and see. Even when we play the Magic, I don’t see L-Frank putting Yi on Dwight.

That is a bit optomistic. I saw a lot of Yi last season as a bucks fan, and he will never be more than a role player. Has nowhere near the offensive creativity of a Dirk, and he doesn’t rebound or play defense well at all either. RJ is already an impact player. The nets got FLEECED.

He was a little lost but definitely has potential. He just needs to play more and more and more. The one thing that worries me about Yi is that he looks kinda scared out there… Jefferson never looked scared. Yi needs confidence!

Thorns decision to make the trade had little to do with Yi’s skills anyway—Yi’s purpose on the nets is to clear space for LBJ. However LBJ isn’t going to want to play with stiffs even for $20 million (.. ok maybe for $50 million euros he’d play with whomever).

 Hopefully LBJ will see the advantage of playing alongside Yi regardless of Yi’s production. It would be a smart business decision for Lebron to come to the nets in 2010 for the mere fact of Yi being so popular in China. It sells Lebron even moreso to the Chinese market—like Yao Ming did for McGrady. Lebron will be more popular than Ming, McGrady, Yi Jianlian, and even Kobe too.

$$$

Cant wait to see you in Brooklyn Lebron!

ps. Devin Harris, Lebron and Brook Lopez will win a championship together.

The trade was presumably made to clear out cap space for the LeBron James sweepstakes. I would stop short of saying the Nets got fleeced. They got a potentially good player in a situation where they were just dumping salary anyway. It was an outstanding trade considering that.

If you look at Yi’s stats for his rookie year and Dirk’s stats for his rookie year, you will see they are near identical. In fact, Yi had a better rookie year than Nowitzki.

In 1998-98, 20 year old Dirk Nowitzki played in 47 games (strike shortened season), playing an average of 20.4 minutes a game. He scored 8.2 ppg, grabbed 3.4 rpg, shot 40.5% from the floor, 20.6% from the arc.

In 2007-08, 19 year old Yi Jianlian played in 66 games (injuries late in the season), playing an average of 25.0 minutes a game. He scored 8.6 ppg, grabbed 5.2 rpg, shot 42.1% from the floor, 28.6% from the arc.

Dirk became the primary project of the Mavs’ director of player personnel, Kiki Vandeweghe.

Yi became the primary project of the Nets’ general manager, Kiki Vandeweghe.

I think I’ll wait.

If you think Yi is only 19, I have a bridge in Brooklyn for sale.

I love the way everyone talks about potential. If you haven’t figured out how to play ball by the age of 19 (sources say he is closer to 22), then you aren’t going to figure it out. I am a long time nets fans and go to alot of games. Yi has skills, but no creativity. He is open on the wing and instead of pump faking a defender running at him, he decides to shoot fadeaways. He is a terrible defender and doesn’t help offensive flow. He is a role player at best. Thorn did a good job in the RJ deal to clear up money, but I don’t think he really thought Yi would pan out. Expect Yi to be a bust. Even Dirk knew how to pump fake early in his career.