We all hope you can do it….not the cooking…..the power in power forward….

He needs to be more aggressive, forget calm. We need him to attack the basket, bringing the ball down is not helping. But he has all the tools.

Confidence is the key to the game and as long as Yi remains confident he’ll be just fine.

He attacked a few times off the dribble and also followed a missed j with a one handed jam….He was doing this before he got hurt last yr….He should do what Ivan Lendl did and get some German Shephards to make him more aggressive….

I thought he, Lee and TWill played well. He was aggressive even when he got hit. It’s a process, but in two of the last three games, he scored 20 and 21 and grabbed 8 and 11 rebounds.

Its scary how bad Yi can be sometimes, but it is also scary how good he can be. The thing that I find most intriguing about Yi is the fluidity to his game. He can get the ball on the wing, drive the ball inside forcing the defender to backpedal, then quickly turn his back to the defender to post him up, then even more quickly spin baseline to catch his defender off guard and get a high percentage shot. I have seen him do that a few times, and its a very mature basketball move that would seem to belie his lack of experience. He seems like he does have the basketball IQ but is not fully confident in himself yet. As far as the lack of aggression, it may be a cultural thing. Some of those same complaints were placed on Yao for his first few seasons in the league before he finally figured it out. Yi may be quite good over time.

They can all be quite good over time.

Thorn made a big mistake by waiting to rebuild and a series of smaller mistakes in taking Planinic, Drejer, Wright and the two Williams in the draft. Krstic’s injury was bad luck as was SAR’s knee issue before that…but that happens to almost every franchise. Brooklyn’s saga hasn’t helped either.

All that said, Thorn and Vandeweghe have set this franchise up for the future with solid picks the last two drafts (TWill looked very good last night), getting Harris, Lee and Yi (I hope) in salary dumps and stockpiling nine picks over the next three years.

I like the confidence that he has..i wouldnt give up on him yet..i see the improvement already. keep it up Yi

@NetIncome

You forgot about Brandon Armstrong. Brandome Armstrong cannot be quite good over time, lol. And apparently we were choosing between Armstring and Gilbert Arenas!

Maybe Yi played more aggressively because he knew his new owner’s “aides” were watching. Lets see if he can do this for 4/5 games instead of 1/5.

The beat writers should have an asterisk next to Yi’s age / birthdate. The unofficial word is that he was born in 1984 (not 87) and will be 25 this month. Besides this story, check out reader comment #3:
http://nba.fanhouse.com/2008/12/20/evidence-suggests-yi-jianlian-is-24-not-21/

If I believed Yi was really born in 1987, I would be a big supporter too. Being 25, however, means only enough upside potential to be a good 6th or 7th man for a contending team – which hopefully the Nets would become if they got a real PF such as Boozer now, which in turn would justify a top FA coming this summer.

Some Nets fans fail to realize that no successful franchise would allow club to be worst in league if there was a billionaire (at least 14 billion in cash) owner. Unfortunately, club is in Limbo at present.

I don’t expect Yi to defend very well. But I expect him to do good on offense and maybe make the defense of the opposing PF looks weaker and also get them in foul trouble. NETS should be able to assess the strength of Yi if he can post up and make Brook’s role a little simpler.

How come Yi plays better when Devin Harris is not playing???
I am starting to think the problem is not Yi, but DH?

Confidence is not the key to the game, talent is. If he has the talent to play in the NBA, he’ll be just fine.

Yi needs to do some push ups and power lifting.

listen u could have all the talent in the world you want if you lack confidence that talent would not show as for Yi he’s proved this even in his rookie year with the bucks he scored 20+ a couple times he wasn’t a lottery pick for no reason. Now look he had no confidence what happened to all those 20+ he scored it went down the drain. Confidence is the “KEY” to the game.

Because he is seven feet tall, we forget how very young and how very strange it must be for YI to be alone in such a strange place as the NBA. The NBA “culture” is strange for young men who were born here and have lived here their whole lives… I am glad his parents will be with him for part of this season, it will help him. I still have high hopes for YI, he really could be a 15 and 8 guy in this league and play 30 quality minutes a game for a decent team. Really. GO YI! GO NETS! GO FISHING!

How come YI plays better when D. Harris isn’t playing???

do you see how Harris plays?

he probes the paint for his own shot or setting other people up.

Alston did not shoot much (0-3FG) but he did his best to find Yi at his comfort zones.

SO how do u explain Yi good games last year when harris was playing? right b4 he hurt his pinky…He just needs 2 be more assertive. Thats all.

Besides all the comments, I would say better cooking by Yi’s parents could possibly help his strength and weight problems.
Also, have someone with native language to talk with after the games could possibly help Yi’s confidence and ability of solving problems.
I would guess most of the people here on borad never tried to work under that pressure in a foreign country, at 21, with on friends and relatives to share with.

Regarding the poor draft picks in the Thorn era that Net Income raised, I blame those more on Stefansky than Thorn. Did you notice how Stefansky leaves, and we suddenly start drafting smarter?

Let’s not get too crazy. He played most of his minutes against Jordan Hill who looks like a bad version of Mikki Moore out there. I think we will be destroyed at the 3 and 4 this year. I can’t see CDR keeping up with Piece, Turgkulu, Igoudala, just to name a few in the Atlantic. ANd I don’t see Yi staking up againt Garnett, Bosh, Brand, or even Lee just to name all the Atlantic. I believe the other 3 can hold their own or even dominate on some nights. But 3 and 4 will be major problems.

I wouldn’t say Stefanski was entirely at fault…Marcus Williams was projected top 10—he dropped, and we didn’t have a legit back-up PG so I think the decision was obvious…However, the Boone pick sucked and I think we all got a little high after MW landed on us that we said ‘Ah, let’s bring his UConn buddy too’…Swill was exactly the type of PF we needed since losing KMart, and one who could once and for all replace Collins…Wright was a toss up—He played out of his mind in the draft workouts and tricked everyone with his lights out shooting hence the projected Allan Houston comparison…

Our last picks were all spot on for what we need—Lopez fell to us since every team addressed their needs and Michael Jordon is a terrible GM…We have yet to see how TWill pans out put it was the best available choice.

So many ppl make big deals out of the ‘Wow, we coulda had _!’ It’s all easy to say in hindsight but you can’t help it if some players are just diamonds in the rough that really take it to a whole new level later on in their career…And you never know how they might progress on your team—Granger would have been a backup behind RJ for some time and most likely not become the star he is now had he not had the reigns of his team put on him…Harris was only so good playing in AJ’s system and with several star players, and we all know what happened when he came here…

Just saying the blame shouldn’t entirely be on the GMs…unless they pick Kwame Brown…

Translation is tricky. The google translator has translated the word “cooking” correctly but it has another meaning in Chinese, Yi was saying that his parents are going to take care of his daily chores, not teaching him how to cook.

The kid is talented. I think he will have a solid year. Go Yi!!

I’d like to see Yi start to put together some consistency in his play….he should be at the point where he is having solid games 4 out of every 5 nights. If he can deliver that, I’ll have no problems

And for those asking, it is ALARMING that Yi plays off the charts when Devin Harris is hurt, and clearly anyone can see that it’s because Harris has poor chemistry with Yi and he doesn’t look for him. Alston has been playing like crap but at least he looks to make plays with his big man.

Harris needs to become a leader. This will make an entire world of difference.

Yi should play on the second unit, away from Harris, Lopez, Lee, CDR. There is not enough ball to go around with these score first mentality 1st stringers.

I hope Yi is 25 years old instead of 22. Men’s bodies start to mature at 25 and become more solid. The stronger Yi becomes the better.