great!

Yi has been looking very good. Defensively he needs to be a little more physical and make his presence felt, he has the length and size to do so, but on offense some of the stuff I’m seeing has me very excited.

They have to make it a point to give this kid the ball when a slower defender is on him so he can put the ball on the floor and make a move. I think he should limit himself to 2-3 attempt at three per game, otherwise keep it inside and mid range. It’s amazing what some hard offseason work, confidence, and aggressiveness can do for a player’s game.

He’s a legitimate offensive weapon out there. That opens things up tremendously.

With all the negativity going on surrounding the Nets, I must say I was impressed with Yi’s last two games. I’m not saying he is the franchise saviour (which hopefully will keep people from complaining here), but when CDR also returns, that’s a lot of people driving to the hoop and creating something out there.
I think when Harris, Lee, CDR, Yi and Brook are on the court together, it will be very difficult to double-team Lopez because you have so many people who can slash and score.

I think the coaching staff used him well in two different situations. Against the TWolves, no one would go outside to guard him and so he started firing. Against the Rockets, he was faced with smaller (and in some cases, slower) opponents, so he went by and over them.

That’s always been the hope, that he could parlay his shooting and athleticism, an extremely rare combination for a seven footer.

Both his and Lopez’s defense was dreadful.

That said, it’s now possible to believe that long term the Yi trade COULD pay off. RJ does appear to be in decline and he is owed $15.2 million next season.

NI your right.
lopez and yi may be talented offensively but they cant guard well…lopez is good at getting blocks once in a while but both are relatively weak and get pushed around easily.

i think yi will make a good back up pf…im really happy what im seeing from him in the last 2 games.

none in nets plays defense at all. two tall guys not, neither all small guys. this is a coach issue

If Yi could be a legit sixth man for the Nets that would be great (from a basketball as well as a marketing point of view). There is no shame in being a top sixth man in the league.

See DH defense, you will know how worse nets will be. no defense, no rebound. these are two main issues of nets.

Kid scores 39 points in two games, hits 4 three’s in one and drives the lane nine times in the other, slamming it home three times, and grabs 14 boards…and people here think the best he can be is a backup? He can be a lot more than that.

i think its the military haircut…makes him look mean.

if brook and yi can sharpen there defense (very young players)…i think we’re set.

cdr is a legit SG starter IMO…harris isnt 100%. All we need is a sf…Evan Turner anyone?

@ net income

like scoring run, can there be a good luck & coincidense run right ???

:D :D :D

His defense is atrocious. Last night Scola schooled him until Kiki took him out. Then Anderson (who is that???) took advantage of him. Yi leaves miles of space between him and his opponent, and defends with his hands, not feet. His late foul 18 feet from the basket was a dumb play too. I see him as a liability in the last 5 minutes and one of many reasons why the opposition always outscores us down the stretch.

Defense is mostly a team game. Sure block shots are nice, but switching off and helping out, makes good defense.

If Yi can stay healthy and keeps playing like he has, the Nets should be very happy.

Some Nets fans will always find something to complain about when it comes to Yi.

I’m curious what Yi’s value would be if the Nets decided to shop him. Could we get a top 10 pick in next’s years draft? Would Toronto take Yi and a draft pick for Bosh? Would Utah trade Boozer for Yi?

I wouldn’t want to trade Yi, I’m just curious…

Sometimes you don’t know what you got, until you lose it…

isn’t defense the entire team’s weakness? Just throw in it out there..

A few more games like the last two, with their very different styles, and you’ll find out how valuable he is.

People said they would be happy with him averaging 12 to 15 points and 7 to 9 rebounds. Well, even with the small sample, he’s averaging 13 and 8. I think he could better than that, but we shall see how teams adjust to him in the next few weeks. Houston gave him a lot of room, thinking he would start stroking three’s. Instead, he went by them.
This kid is 7’0" with a vertical leap that’s been measured at 38".

As for defense, part of the problem is the varied lineups. I would like to know how many starting lineups the Nets have had this season. I do know that last night was only the second time they had 12 players available this season.
When you have limited experience playing with different guys (and this goes back to training camp), you’re not going to run an efficient offense or defense, particularly when you’ve got a bunch of kids and wounded journeymen.

Net Income, love your analysis, but the idea of stats or points and rebounds per game is ridiculous not because Yi has such a small sample, but more because he is playing on a bad team. Cases in point: think about Lee and Robinson for the Knicks who both had really good stats. Yet, there was little interest in signing them. One reasons may be that good stats on bad teams is not the same as good stats on good teams. If Lee, Robinson, Yi, etc. were on solid, competitive teams, there minutes would be reduced and their shots would be reduced. A coach would not let them play through mistakes. So, Yi gets to play tons of minutes (as does CDR and etc.) on a bad team, but, for example, another team that needed a win would have benched him earlier because he was ineffective against Scola. Actually, let’s be real, another team would not start him! So, looking at stats is deceptive. I mean a simplistic way to look at the Nets is to say: “hey, we have 4 players that score 18 points per night, so we are a great team.” But we all know that we are not even an ok team even if 4 players can score 18 points. I see 4 or 5 guys that are just learning how to play a team game on the offense and 4 or 5 guys that have no clue how to defend and rebound effectively or make crucial decisions and stops at the end of games. I mean 6 rebounds in 40 minutes against a team whose power forward is 6 foot 6 inches is nothing to write home about.

I love this kid’s potential. He is playing with such a great confidence and aggressiveness. He can hit outside shots, but he wasn’t hitting them yesterday like the previous game and played really, REALLY aggressive, putting the ball on the floor and finishing really strong. He was unstoppable every time he did that. He needs to improve his D, but again, I believe this kid possesses a special talent. A 22-year old 7 footer who can hit from the outside, who has the skill set of a SF and who can take it to the hole with so aggresively… Keep up the good work Yi!

@Yao
whatever you want to say to denigrate his games is, of course, your perogative. I will continue to be optimistic. And last night’s performance was against a good team.

He’s 22 years old. It’s about potential.

Finally I see posters recognize a problem that must be addressed. Lopez is slow on D to apply help, which he acknowledges. Yi is not strong enough or has the court awareness and aggressiveness to help and that is our biggest problem. Limited experience with who you’re playing with is not as important as complimenting your teammates which our bigs have little ability to do. The matchups Yi has gone against the last two games (Love, non athletic and Landry, small) reinforces by belief that he is made for the SF position which would give him physical advantages more often and get another big on the court to lend more help on D. We suck no matter what but it’s about putting players in a position to succeed.

THATS A SIZE TRIPLEEEEEEE YIIIIIIIIIIII!!!

NetIncome, Yes, and it is your perogative to ignore the comments that are made I suppose. You cannot judge a player on a bad team the same way you can judge a player on a good or real good team. He and the team have major flaws which cannot be hidden by individual numbers – but the wins and loses tell the real story. Harris, CDR, Yi and Lopez can amass all the numbers they want. When the game is on the line – that’s what counts. Can he stop people? Should he be starting? Should we be satisfied with our front line? Yes, he has potential, but so does this 2 – 28 team. I just don’t think we should look at individual stats. His game is better, but it is not the game you want from a starter on a good team. So while you can dismiss all that is being posted with one swipe about negativity, you are not addressing the larger question.

I like the Yi who has returned to play. He’s more aggressive and confident and fluid. Perfect? No, but certainly potential to be further developed. Yi personifies some of the other talents on this team – CDR, Brook, TWill, Lee – young players with demonstrated potential. We’ve seen the trailer. We wanna see the film. We will be patient.

I’m looking so forward to new ownership, management and cash to better the team. I see a promising future.

GO YI!!! GO NETS!!

@Jeff

Well Put !

Yi suck!!!

get over it, he works best as support, not starter!

get David Lee, Lebron and Wade

The Nets need better team defense as a whole, but it doesn’t help that the starting PG doesn’t set the tone defensively.

All of you know that no one was or has been harder on Yi than me. BUT, the Yi I sat and watched courtside the last 2 games is not the Yi offensively that I have watched the past season and a 1/4. I have NEVER seen him attack the basket like he did over 7 times last night.

Now defensively forget about it!!! Hes terrible. The biggest evedence of that is the way he backed off Brooks last night when he made that move with 39 secs left. But offensively he went and bought some courage from somebody.

This team is soft! We all know that. No one plays defense in this team beside our rookie. What is Devin Harris excuse?

I’m afraid to get my hopes up with Yi after two games, but his intent with the basketball has been completely different. I think about Kiki’s role with Dirk and hope the same can be applied, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself.

Yi actually looked good because he actually being coach by people that know him.

Well you guys have covered just about everything…..And as upset as I get watching Yi try to play defense I have to agree with NI……We have no team defense and all really good teams have team defense…..I also get upset with Yi’s rebounding ,not that he is not getting any but I feel that he can get alot more……Also , Having Yi (And now our Russian Market ) on the Nets will play a Big factor in landing Lebron and maybe Wade or both….This said , I’m seeing Yi getting and making a ton of open 3’s and his defense and rebounding improving by having a real floor general on the court with him……As it will be with all the players , having a leader on the court will vastly improve everyones game and the team as a whole….especially with the young and running team that we currently have….

Sure Yi has made numerous mistakes defensively, maybe that has to do with him not playing all year, ya think? To me, he already has a positive impact. He has altered shots anD grabbed rebounds. OK, so I am comparing him to Simmons playing PF. :)

I have no complaints how yi played. this is what we all wished for. if he does this every nite then we will get some wins under our belt. when cdr comes back we will be able to string something together. yi never passes the ball though that is kind of disturbing.

Net income, Help me here..Do we target a 4 in free agency {Lee or Boozer} reup Yi at big bucks to be a back up and retard his development, or do we ignore a starter, give the injury prone Yi the job, and look to sign or draft a backup? Being it’s our weakest position, we have some big decisions to make..hat you think ? Thanks

We should target the best player available. LeBron, Wade, Bosh, all down the line. Beggars can’t be choosy.

In the past, especially the draft, we seemed to go after specific “need” players. I think you should go after “best” player first, regardless of position. Of course, if it’s a toss up between two players , you go after “need” first.

In other words, if the best in the draft or FA is a center, I think you get him, even though we already have a center, Brook Lopez.

Best player = Talented, team oriented, unselfish, good character.

Yi’s performance offensively has impressed me, but hasn’t surprised me. We all knew he had an offensive game.

BUT… there is a reason,
Scola and Landry had great games
-Yi had a -7 +/ differential
-Boone had a +10
-We got out rebounded by 12 rebounds despite two 7 footers starting and Houston being horribly undersized

For as good as Yi could be offensively, his presence defensively and on the boards hurts this team… UNLESS we can get a player at the 3 or behind him that can cover for him defensively and help on the glass.

I’m telling you guys, Tyrus Thomas would be a perfect addition at the right price.

-Other teams will focus on other FAs and spend their money
-He can play the 3 or 4 defensively
-He can play the 3 or 4 offensively
-He can block shots
-He can rebound
-He can defend
-He can finish strong/dunk
-He’s improving offensively
-He’s athletic

I would guess all we would have to do is go slightly above the MLE and we could have him.

With Yi all but cemented in as this team’s starter for the immediate future, there is no point in paying big bucks to a Boozer or Lee (I don’t see us getting Amare or Bosh). Tyrus Thomas for a $6 or 7m a year would be a steal IMO.

Yes on Tyrus……Can Yi move to small forward ????

He wouldn’t need to.

Tyrus Thomas
Yi Jianlian
Brook Lopez

Would be a very dynamic and young front-court

@Jack Handy…notice, however, that against the T-Wolves, the team was +12 with Yi and -19 with Boone in the game. So I’m not sure if you can necessarily pin it so heavily on Yi versus overall just bad team defense….

I like Yi a lot and I respect that he recognized he had to improve on nearly all aspects of his game after last season, and instead of just saying that, as most young players do, he actually did something about it. He has improved so much since last year. His defense is still bad but I am now optimistic he will work on this part of his game and come back an even better player next year. I think he can in the years to come become a complete player capable of averaging 18/8. He has a lot of pressure on him to represent his home country well and I am proud of him for being committed to rise to those lofty standards.

I agree that if we cannot land Bosh/Amare/Lee, and we go small in the draft, Tyrus Thomas would be a smart pickup at the right price. He has a lot of versatility and could likely play all the front court positions. He may mesh quite well with Yi. He and TWill on the court together would also be a terror from an athleticsm standpoint.

The problem with Thomas is that he is a head case. He has never reached his potential or even close to it. Also, Thomas is restricted free agent. What that means is that after the Nets make their offer, the Bulls would have a week to match. During that week, the money the Nets would have offered to Thomas is frozen. It cannot be offered to anyone else. Now, with $25 million, offering $7 to $8 million shouldn’t be a problem unless of course you want to offer a top tier free agent who’s unrestricted the max contract.

Also, in the chess game that is free agency, the Bulls will wait the full seven days…even if they don’t want to match. Why? Because they will be competing for some of the same free agents. So they will want to tie up as much of the Nets cap space as they can.

@NI

Tyrus Thomas is far from a head-case and certainly nothing like Sean Williams. The guy has never been problematic for the Bulls, other than the fact they made the mistake of trading Aldridge for him on draft night. Yes, it has taken him some time to get where he is, but he’s young still improving and a great compliment next to Yi.

Also, the Bulls will most likely renounce all their FAs including Tyrus. If they renounce TT and Salmons opts out (likely he will considering all the teams with money) they can afford a Max FA, which they would have a good shot at landing considering they have Rose, and the appeal of Chicago (Wade) going for them.

Thomas’s cap hold would be huge, so there is virtually no chance they do not renounce it, and thus he would be an unrestricted free agent.

Yi Jianlian can not play Small Foward. He needs to improves his handles, otherwise he would get schooled.

The Nets might be able to get someone like Morrow or Thomas with some of the draft picks they have if that is the direction they want to go.
It would seem silly to rent Boozer for half a season unless they really thought he could stay healthy and contribute for the next three years which is highly doubtful.
It will be very interesting to see if anything happens by the Feb. deadline. If Dooling is healthy perhaps Rafer will be dealt….but for what?
This is a limbo land few teams have had to deal with….new owner, uncertain stadium issues, recovering from a horrible owner who decimated the team.
If Rod is given the green light it will be very interesting to see what he comes up with.
If Bosch truly is going to leave Toronto the Nets have lots of assets to use tho the Raptors would be loathe to mix it up again with Thorn I reckon.

I’d love to do something like what OKC did with Utah. Help some team over the tax get under it, or save a lot of money by taking on as much 2009-2010 salary as possible and maybe in throw a couple of million of Proky’s money to get some sort of asset back.

OKC landed Eric Maynor, a quality rookie PG prospect for taking on the expiring contract of Matt Harpring, and thus saving Utah close to $10m. Admittedly I’m not sure, who or what, but I’m sure there are possibilities out there. NJ is nowhere close to the tax, has some trade exceptions and can always take back 125% extra salary + 100,000 in a trade.

THATS A SIZE TRIPLEE YIIIIIIIII

This team’s biggest problem ain’t the PF position. To me, it’s the lack of a team leader as well as an unselfish PG who’s capable of seeing the floor, distributing the ball and running the plays. Can anyone name the leader of this team? Harris? Lopez? I don’t think so. You can critize Yi all day for his defensive weaknesses, but the Nets need to figure out a way to improve their team defense, and good team defense all starts with the leader of the team.

@ Don’t Taze me

Yi has to play small forward. He is the pro equivalent of the “coach’s son.” He gets to play no matter what he does or what another Net shows (goodby Ryan Anderson), and can never be traded. So, either the Nets use him as a weak PF who cannot rebound in traffic or drive the basket against quality defense, or as a SF who cannot handle the ball or pass. Better at SF. He can make long shots if guarded by smaller players. He cannot do anything at PF that is helpful.

To everyone asking Yi to play SF:

Isn’t a guy with 3pt range good at the PF spot? Since he can draw big men outside where they’ll rebound and block shots less. Plus, he can beat slower big men off the dribble. He does have some post skills which he could develop over time as well. To ask him to be a SF is to make him so much more limited and one dimensional. If everyone asked every shooting big man who ever entered the league to play solely the perimeter we never would have had all these great shooting big men like Dirk and Okur

@ muwu

Dirk & Okur are capable defenders. Yi is not. I believe Yi’s desire to go to the rim is greater when he plays a smaller player than a slower player. He’s a better player when he has the height and strength advantage. Imo the biggest reason to play him at the SF is it gives us another player at PF who can defend and rebound which clearly is our biggest problem. If we don’t have quality we should go with quantity.

@ robby

As “a guy who can’t rebound in traffic”, Yi was second on the team in rebounds last year (only 7th on the team in minutes).

@ PhilNYC
Watching stat sheet vs. watching the game = different perspectives.

@ robby

It’s also very nit-picky. Yi does a good job of out-jumping others for rebounds. And even if what you say has any truth to it (I don’t believe it does), maybe the fact that he does have such a high rebounds/minutes is a pretty good indication that he gets good position? Or are you trying to say that he’s just lucky that the ball lands in his hands so frequently?

Many rebounds that are on the stat sheet that have nothing to do with the ability of the rebounder. I you really wanted a stat to evaluate rebounding ability (the ability to gain possession after a missed shot), you would have to refine the data. If no offensive players are attempting an offensive rebound, which often happens, why keep a stat for the uncontested rebound? What does it prove about the ability of the “rebounder”? One of the defensive players was going to get the rebound and, presumably, they are not fighting with each other to see which one gets it. So, like so many other basketball stats, “rebounds/minute” is garbage in/garbage out exercise. When Dwight Howard wrestles a rebound away from Perkins, or vice-versa, now that is a rebound!

Yao is completely right about Yi.

And I assume Yao is Chinese, so I value his critical opinion more about Yi’s lack of defense.

And I thought we were supposed to put an Asterisk(*) when mentioning Yi’s age. Maybe Yao can respond to the age issue, as I think most Chinese believe that they changed his age so that he could qualify as a Junior for more years.

Yi just cannot react fast enough on defense, and being skinny, doesn’t have a “wide body or thick” to compensate.

Plus he has bad hands when getting loose balls.

But regardness, why are the Nets bothering to get top draft picks and FAs if not looking for someone who can be the starting PF???

Nets will be a good team if Yi can deserve being the 6th man in another year.

@ robby

Uncontested rebounds are recorded in every player’s stats, not just Yi’s. Why doesn’t Boone get as many uncontested rebounds on the defensive boards? To single Yi out as a beneficiary of an unusually high number of uncontested rebounds seems like a stretch.

Yi is playing well. Sure he has flaws but so does every single player we have, including all five players in the starting lineup. Thats why we have only won two games all year. This is the season where we should play Yi as many minutes as we possibly can. At the end of the year we will be able to judge him better and assess our top priorities in the draft and free agency. With how far he has come since last season, I feel his potential to develop further is great, and in a season like this, it is one of the more exciting things happening and one of the reasons to keep watching the games. Go Yi, prove those doubters wrong!

@Phil

I am not singling out Yi for uncontested rebounds. I am saying that looking at the number of rebounds a player gets is not going to tell you how well somebody rebounds. The statistic is simply too weak. Boone, now that you mention it, gets some offensive rebounds because he is not guarded unless he is under the basket (no respect for his jump shot). So, he is able to crash the offensive boards without being boxed out. His offensive rebound numbers (also bulked up by his getting his own misses), are deceiving.

It’s similar to looking at the number of hit in baseball to see who is a good hitter. (Pete Rose far better than Babe Ruth?)