When It Comes to Yi: The Bad Comes With the Good

Dave D kind of down on Yi again. He need to take some happy pills or something.

David D is absolutely ridiculous….

What to expect from yi:

many turnovers…
1. He drives w/o control to the basket and will pick up offensive fouls
2. His good play will attract double teams and cause him to make bad decisions.

Yeah…his d sucks but so does everyone elses’ on the nets.

He definitely is lacking in basketball IQ but that is a factor of a lack of competition in China and a lack of playing time in the NBA. Joe Alexander is suffering from the same lack of basketball IQ. It will only come with extensive minutes. This is the perfect season for YI – if only he can stay healthy. But you have to be impressed thus far with what you’ve seen

dave just has to BEL-YI-VEEEEEEEEEEEEE

It seems like Brook is pissed that Yi is back in the line up and doing well……

I watch the game today, and i want to point out that the referees make a lot of mistake today, and no one really address it. The referee should be fired if they make too many mistake in only one single game. In the first half, some of the offensive fouls called on Nets player are wrong. It looks the the thunders are pushing the nets player with body, and the fouls go to the nets (offensive fouls). Durant shooting 3 free throws for a foul on the pass is another mistake by the referees. If referee makes only 2 or 3 mistakes in the game is ok, but more than that should be fired because the coach can be fired by the mistakes made by referees. Wow, the referee can become the go-to-guy to decide which team can win the game.

Yi is doing good. He will be doing better in the future. He will improve his defense. Well, the point is, when you say his defense is poor, that’s because he has to help teammates to defense, while, when he defends only one player, his defense is not bad.

Both Lopez and Yi, two 7s are NETS future. Lopez plays as center with good basketball IQ. Yi plays as PF with athelic moving skill. Now the problem to NETS’ coach, is to find out a best way to use these two guys on court at same time.

Regarding defensive, it is a team job. You cannot give all bad to these two guys, it is unfair to them because they are the last defense position playing in the center. Actually NETS defense problem is from outside.

Lmao @ Dave D saying Yi cost us the game against the Rockets, it’s hilarious, he even blames him for missing that dunk, when he was fouled and officials actually called the foul.

Lopez is obviously frustrated by guys inability to throw a post entry pass. He wasn’t getting the ball against obvious mismatches against Thunder forwards.

I like Yi’s performance from the offensive end since he returned. He has shown me a lot of tenacity with his drives to the rim, which is improving the accuracy of his outside game. Having said that, I believe Dave D. is correct. Maybe the proof of the evolution will come as he plays more games, but this team needs ALOT more than points from their 7-foot PF. I don’t see a concerted effort on defense so far, and two assists in 184 minutes of play this season is paltry.

I’m not hating on Yi because his improvement is good for the team as a whole. However, a team that has been out-rebounded by opponents in 19 consecutive games (and lost 17 of them) needs a big guy who will get in the trenches and bang bodies and keep a guy in front of him on the defensive end. Until that happens, his offensive exploits won’t be nearly enough to get this team needed wins. And wins are what matter most for all Net fans.

In short, his offensive agressiveness is a good start, but we gave up RJ to get this guy, so I need to see more overall production before I can endorse him as worthy of a starting role for this team.

@netfan48 Good observation. I don’t think he is pissed as much as confused. He was the go to guy with Yi out, andf since Yi is back the Nets are going to him more. Look, we are desperate for a savior, and we certainly can’t win without Yi, maybe not with him either, but at least the NETS have some spark and hope since he returned.

It’s just a matter of the two of them playing together and developing chemistry. Look at Randolph and Gasol in Memphis. Really playing together and leading their team. Yi and Lopez hve played all but 3 games together without Lawrence Frank. In time they can be a great offensive tandem. D is another story but I think that will develop as well, just not as quickly. Anyone not impressed with Yi this week should just hang out with Hollinger at ESPN.

Sweet + Sour Yi

If Yi is only 22, you would be crazy not to love his potential.

He worked hard on his offense, and has improved.

Maybe he works hard on defense, and improves.

As long as he can stay healthy, I say he’s a keeper.

The more he plays, his “bad instincts” should also get better.

Let’s stop raining on Yi’s parade.

Like Andres pointed out, some of those “mistakes” during the Rockets game were not his fault. Getting fouled while trying to dunk isn’t a mistake.

You need to encourage Yi going hard to the hoop. Oh Dave D, just lolz.

Yi was minus 17 in the +/- stats, that means the other guys scored 46 when Yi was in the game… I don’t see why you guys are so optimistic… we will lose every game Yi plays in if those numbers hold.

Wake up! The fans and the players were sold out by The Rat. I won’t even watch again until the Russian guy gets his 80%.

as someone from china like me, will never understand what you nets fans want from Yi. When he plays offensively and aggressively(as what you guys wanted), always there are other reasons to blame on him.

sad…

if you need a all-star perfect guy, please trade Yi…and many others.

@NetRick

Yi was +12 against the T-Wolves, and it didn’t seem to help.

Fire Kiki & trade Yi for a bag of peanuts

“Coaching staff letting Yi play through his struggles”

If the “coaching staff” benched every struggling Nets player,
we would have no team on the court.

Why is Yi always singled out?

Even when he plays great somebody finds fault.

Yi bashing has become boring, simply boring.

The bigger issue to me is that Kiki is taking touches away from Lopez and making the Nets a perimeter team. When Yi gets the most shots on a team with Harris and Lopez there is a problem. Harris and Lopez put tremendous pressure on defenses, Yi does not. I hope that Kiki is just trying to increase his trade value, b/c you cannot win this way. He should be developing Lopez for the future. He should be utilizing Harris’ breakdown abilities. The Nets are less competitive with Yi and I cannot imagine how bad DEFENSIVELY this team will look with CDR and Yi in the front court. Ouch. This team cannot carry two defensively challenged players – ok, CDR is better defensively, but not a good defender.

as someone from china like me, will never understand what you nets fans want from Yi. When he plays offensively and aggressively(as what you guys wanted), always there are other reasons to blame on him.

sad…

if you need a all-star perfect guy, please trade Yi…and many others.

since yi returned, lopez number are on the floor (down)

less than 10 pts in all last 3 games, it means one of them has to come off the bench….

we need a new starting PF, How about a trade of our garbage and a pick for David Lee ?

more than D, we need offense

Why ? bobcats and Phoenix have the answers

Bobcat’s Defense is strong but still they loose a lot

PHX’s Offense is Mighty and with low D, they are over .500 by far

we need a powerhouse on Offense, David Lee plz

ill like to sign Wade too! even more than Lebron

P.S Bench Yi, he is blasting Lopez’s Game

Comment #28 of game 31, OKC @ Nets

Lopez tops Nenad
Yi tops Green
Hassell gets decimated by Durant
Lee tops sefolosha
Harris equals Westbrook

Well it seems Nenad blasted Lopez, Durant blasted all of us and Russell got the best out of harris

our only positive thing was Yi’s 29

Lee, despite 17, seemed disconnected. out of place, for me of course.

Dave D is exactly right. I watched Yi on D last night and he was frequently way out of position. Esp when he was the 5, which I recognize he is not used to playing. But you do have to take the good with the bad when everyone else is just bad.

@geo

Shots aren’t being taken away from Lopez because of Kiki’s coaching. Yi was taking what the defense gives him. He has to take those jumpers and pressure his man with drives to the hole. I think a bigger problem is Lopez not sealing his man closer to the basket and sometimes forcing horrible shots over double teams. I like Lopez but it’s really annoying that he complains on every play. It also doesn’t help that some of the guards can’t throw an entry pass to him. And Harris is way too out of control with his drives to the basket. How many times did he drive and dish it right to the other team?

Love the aggressive play of Yi, even though it’s riddled with errors. I’m glad to see the tenacity. The guy is big and can move and can shoot some. So that’s good.

He may never be a good defender – who knows about the IQ getting better – you hope. On this team, he shoud be allowed to play as much as possible now.

If I’m the Nets, I don’t give him away either, but he has a long way to go to be a starter on a good team, but there are strides being made. I certainly would still look to bring in some depth at the 4 – even the type of depth that could push him to a part-time role. But I am rootng for the guy – he’s on the Nets and they need him right now badly if they want to win 10 games this year.

Like i said.

Brooke/Boone/Swat

Yi/Battie

Experiment with that big lineup.

Seriously, lmao at some of yall blaming Brook’s bad play recently on Yi’s return. Yi’s return isnt making Brook lose touches. Its not like Yi’s a ballhog. Like mentioned earlier, Yi takes the shots given to him by the D. Brooks just been in a mini slump these past few games. Dont blame it on Yi. Your starting to sound like David D haha

People need to chill out. Brook and Yi really do not have many minutes on the floor together all season. And maybe Yi is not the answer as starting PF, maybe we do need to find a banger in the draft or free agency. But if Yi can give us 20+ in 30 minutes on the floor a night – he has a spot on this team. The Yi bashing is getting ridiculous. Lets see a 10 game stretch with Brook, Yi, CDR, Lee, TWill, Harris and Boone getting minutes and see how this squad looks. THat is the only way to judge this team.

Aside from the youth on the roster, the injuries have really hurt team chemsitry. Some of the errant passes, etc may be fixed just by having an idea of where guys will be on the floor, where they will cut, etc.

This is not a finished product (Yi or the Nets) but you have to give them time to gell before complaining for trades.

Yi does sometimes coast on defense. But his offensive game is damn nice, and he’s only 22.

@Dillon
Look at Lopez’s numbers since Yi returned. His touches are way down. That is not good for the team. I worry more when CDR returns. He needs the ball too! This is not a good team approach. Yi should be applauded for hitting shots and being aggresive, but Kiki needs to see the bigger picture and Lopez is the biggest picture: he is the future, not Yi. Yi is at best a 6th man. The team needs to establish Harris and Lopez and some D. Yi is not helping the D. The best defensive efforts were when the vets played: boone, Hassel, etc. I am not advocating them over the kids. We need a real PF who can play both ends and play inside and rebound like KLove or DLee.

First, Yi was called for a T for unnecessary “pulling himself up in celebration”, not just for “hanging” on rim. Ian Eagle would have explained that. Marv Albert didn’t know. Hopefully Yi knows his actual mistake.

Second, Yi will be fine on offense, though he needs to work better with Lopez. That will take a little time. Just happy Yi is finally “letting it hang out” on offense and not worrying about consequences of failure.

Third, Nets fans should expect Yi to be coming off the bench next year, or else something went wrong this off-season. Why are Nets talking for 1 year about draft picks/FAs/trades if one of them isn’t a starting PF?

If Nets overpaid for David Lee, then at least Yi could get significant PT, since Lee could split time at Center.

How can the NBA scouts and Nets fan be wrong including me about Yi. This guy was totally hampered by the control-freak that is Frank. Frank has, I would say ruin many a rookies and in many ways made Thorn look bad. Funny, Thorn still like him.

How about Harden going 0-10 and was a +7 last night.

@NetRick
+/- is also a team effort if you really want to take it seriously.
Yi played the most minutes(43 mins?) in a double digit loss so its not surprising his +/- didnt look good.

@mr.big
Guess he contributed on the defensive end? lol
There you have it, +/- has been greated exaggerated.

Lopez points and shots are down because other teams double hard on him. When Lopez doesn’t get deep position, a defender can guard lopez and still guard the wing shooter.

And he seem to getting worse at freethrows.

Lopez is just a little “complicated”.

I am not worried about Brook.

We are getting better, just wait in see…

Yi would be a perfect first big off the bench for a good team. I like the thought of David Lee starting with Yi off the bench. Lee doesn’t require a lot of touches- plus he is a good jump shooter and garbage basket maker. Lee also is a great rebounder. Yi would provide a great scorer off the bench with size and athleticism.

Hopefully Lee can be signed for close to $10 million leaving room for a max FA. Maybe the Nets can figure a way to package Najera with Dooling or Alston for an expiring deal to free up another $3 million…

David Lee is a gamer…

I would rather have him, then have Joe Johnson, AK-47 etc…

Stick it to the Knicks and overpay for Lee.

If we can’t sign LeBron, Wade or Bosh, go for Lee…

He can play PF and backup Lopez at center.

Most “good” players can play anywhere.

If the Knicks want to match, good for them…

You all forget the first game of this season, Yi and Lopez both played well, and they almost won that game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaNEwEPpSc4

If anyone is interested,
here’s the highlights of Yi Jianlian in the New Jersey Nets game against Oklahoma City Thunder.

I don’t like David Lee that much. I’d rather have Luis Scola, Udonis Haslem and maybe Tyrus Thomas. Either of those guys would be much better fits here (Lee is an atrocious defender), and either of them could be had for less money that signing Lee would command. He’s no worth $10M per, IMO.

he is a beast right now