Is Yi the "Eternal Tease" or "Potential All-Star"?

Yi gives Lebron something that only 2 people can give him. The other person is Yao Ming. If Lebron gets the exposure from China… The marketing potential is unlimited.

Yi is an asset off the court. On the court imo he is not a PF at the level you can win a title with and will never be. Thorn is not sure he is "starting quality".

Notice when Yi says;
""They did not allow me to drive to the basket, and (were) just very good at making me think about it. They always have two bigs inside. That makes it hard to get to the basket."
All four of the Cavs’ bigs are not offensive players and primarily provide D and rebounding. We have 2 bigs inside and our lane is like ez pass. The difference is DEFENSIVE BIGS. Unless we trade Harris for a big who supplies great D, get LeBron or maybe Amare (his d is questionable), drafting Wall imo will be a mistake. BPAs don’t solve problems. See TWill and our record. Unlike some people in the organization, at least Thorn is not sold on Yi. In Rod we Trust.

Let’s ask Mr. Big..

Mr. Big Says:

December 30th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
Not only did we win but the best way possible. Led by the front court on offense and defense. 51% from the field and an inside presence. 6 blocks from Yi and Lopez. Yi is playing great! Crunch, crunch. That’s me eating my words. You really have to give the coaches credit. Next up the Cavs. Lets shock the world.

Nice job Net Income. Fair, balanced and comprehensive.

As long as Yi stays healthy and plays like he’s been playing, I say he’s a valuable piece.

I can’t believe you can play 4 “good” games in a row and it’s just a fluke. He is not only playing better but “talking” better. He gave credit to Clevelands defense and talked about his short comings, calm, cool, and collected.

He’s shown that he’s a hard worker and with his talent the sky is the limit.

I personally would give Yi as much time as it takes before rendering a final verdict.

And it’s not like we have anybody better right now, anyway.

Let him play, big minutes, mistakes and all…

I have a great idea…let’s make a scary mofo.
I say a face tatoo a la Tyson and maybe some bibles on his arms.
Also, lotta people forget to mention; if yi plays even remotely well he will be an all star. 15 and 7 averages give him 1 billion Chinese votes.

Thank you, Mr. Big, for not claiming that Sean Williams is the answer as you have in past comments.

The team certainly needs defensive bigs (and some smalls too) but I do not believe either Lopez or Yi are finished products and I do recall the good defense Yi played on Dirk Nowitzki in the 2008 Olympics, which even Doug Collins mentioned.

As for Thorn, he may be back. He may not be. A lot depends on how much money he wants and for how long? He turns 69 this year and makes $5.5 million. Would it be smarter with a new owner to bring in someone younger? And last I checked, Kiki is still alive…and making $1.25 million.

Old Chinese proverb;

“A diamond with a flaw is preferable to a common stone with
none”.

I believe Yi is a diamond with a flaw, that can be corrected.

I still think Swat is a better PF than “big time” Yi but thats over. Thanks Kiki. I didn’t know youth and salary would determine the next GM. I thought something like knowing what it takes to win and recognizing the talent it takes would come into play. We still got Supreme to shed the light.

If Swat was only Chinese.

Tired of NetIncome’s fixation on Yi. The Nets’ future lies with Brook, not Yi. Brook needs to develop, especially on the defensive end and if he does the Nets have something special to build around: a real center. Yi seems to be another Stromille Swift. At best a Bargnani or Bogut but those two seem more determined and focused. He is what he is and I hope he is not a building block b/c we are making a big mistake building around a player like Yi.

Swats a bubble head with limited basketball talent. He has had every chance in the world and somehow has done nothing with those chances and has no backers in his corner…

Just look at his face, and you can read it all there.

The light is barely on, and I don’t walk to go knocking on that door.

I think Yi’s performance is a question of stamina. When he is well rested, he excels. But back to back game, he is dragging his body. There ought to be a way for this guy to train to increase his strength and stamina. And that goes for the rest of the team. No player loves the way Riley prepare his team but you can see his players does not run out of gas in the fourth quarters. See, all these players and the Nets including are good shooters. But come the last quarter, the crunch time, they start missing shots because their legs are not in sync with their body.

I’m really flattered that my comments are held to a higher standard then all others.

Show me one G.M. who would take Swat over Yi at this moment in time and I will show you a G.M. without a job or future reference.

forget Swat already, jesus…

MIke: “And it’s not like we have anybody better right now, anyway.”

BECAUSE KIKI traded away Yi’s competition (Ryan Anderson) and refused to draft Hansbrough and refuse to trade for a decent PF.

@Yao
I’m tired of people not understanding that we do longer term analysis based on the news. And this week’s news was Yi’s return. It’s hardly news that Lopez is the Nets’ future, but Lopez isn’t getting double-teamed as much as he was before Yi returned, is he?

I expect to be at the Bucks game, chanting “MVP” when Yi returns to form.

@JohnY
Maybe Yi is better than Anderson.

@ JonhY

The plan was to lose this year and to see what “big time” Yi is again. Sounds redundant, right?. This is Kiki’s mess and Thorn is testing him to see what he could do with it. I don’t think Thorn thought it would be this bad and I feel bad for the fans who spent good money on this team this year. Some fans think with their heart instead of their head.

@ JohnY;

 Obviously, Nets management believed Yi had a higher ceiling then RA and T-Will was rated better then Hansbrough.

 Plus, if I’m not mistaken, RA was traded for Lee before we knew about how good CDR might be. At that point in time we needed to replace Vince Carter.

 Monday morning quarterbacking has always been so easy to do.

 You can blame Nets management for being incompetent, but you can’t blame Yi…

NI mentions Yi could be a fourth legitimate building block beyond Devin, Brook, and Courtney Lee? What about CD-R? I’m pretty sure its safe to say that CDR is a better player and more of building block than Courtney Lee. Oh wait, Lee started on a team that made the NBA finals, so that makes him better.lol.

CDR is also over a year younger than C Lee.

@Mr. Big;

 If Nets fans thought with their head instead of their heart, they would be Laker, Cleveland, Orlando or Boston fans. That is why Nets fans are special…

@pawley
That’s probably fair…although he plays Lebron’s position.

I don’t think it matters that CDR is a year younger than Lee. They are both second year players and duh, yes, Lee has accomplished more than CDR has. I still think that one of the three young swingmen will be traded. CDR and Lee have more value than TWill.

@NetIncome
I get it that the news is his return, but CDR, Hayes, Battie and Dooling all returned recently. Where is the analysis on them? Hayes and Dooling are like glue to this team. I am more interested in them than in Yi, but I am only the reader. And what will you chant if he returns to that other form – brick – or his Buck form? MVYi or OYiOmy?

@Mr Big Swat!!! Backup pf on a d-league team where he will get 3 blocks 4 points 5 fouls and 5 turnovers in his 10 minutes. Give up already!

@ Yao

“big time” Yi has at least 1.3 billion fans. Still want to know why he starts and we get more stories about him than anyone? The underlying theme is why “big time” sucks and plays.

Just calm down!
No one knows what would happen tomorrow. Yi is playing good right now, but far away beyond all-star level. I hope he will become an all-star, cause he is a Nets player. And I also wish Brook, CDR and C.Lee could become all-stars. They are our guys, who are playing for Nets.

@ Net Income
CDR’s natural position is really SG, and I think CDR has even said that is where he’d rather play. If we had Lebron i’m pretty sure CDR would start at the 2 over Lee.

Now if we get the #1 pick and Lebron, both CDR and Lee would be riding pine and Devin would start at 1 and Wall would be the 2.

NI and Mike: obviously YI is not the talent you’all and Kiki would like to hope, that’s why there’s this “Yi Tease” headline. Moreover, the vast majority of scouts have as much dim view about Yi as I do. And I embraced Yi back in the summer of ‘08. we are going on year 2 of this Yi thingg, and you’all still playing the potential card.

I don’t see hear any sourgrapes in Orlando regarding Ryan Anderson. So NO, NI, YI is NOT maybe better than Anderson. Kiki may think so, but Thorn doesn’t.

Mike, hindsight & Monday morning QB? I was down on the TWill draft and the VC trade. so, no, i have foresight, no problem with hindsight.

OK, i’m now blue in the face.

I still don’t understand how people can claim a player that’s only 21 years old don’t have potential you guys kill me. You expect them to be Jordan and blossom over night not gonna happen!

Yi cannot do anything against good teams its a fact

Mr Big

Not one of your above posts are constructive or even make any sense.

You can hate on Yi all you want but your obsession with Sean Williams is mind boggling.

Sean Williams was kicked off his team in college for smoking pot. He came to the nets and was sent to the d-league where he got in fights with referees and coaches, didn’t put up good numbers and embarrassed the organization. Than he came back and amazingly was given a chance to see some time on the floor and he played the best stretch of his career. During that stretch he got in a fight while in a cell phone store, embarrassing the organization once again.

Add all of that to the fact that he hasn’t shown any growth in his game since his rookie year and you have a player who will likely be out out of the nba when the nets are finished with him. Honestly, do you think Sean Williams picks up a basketball in the off season?

Yi still has work to do.
Varejao dared Yi to shoot.
Yi needs to dribble once then shoot to get into rhythm then shoot when the defense laying off.
Yi needs to pass the ball and be aggressive on D.
Yi should be used to Dirk.
KiKi needs to tea Yi the pull up jumper off the dribble.
Yi should be running baseline side to side to keep opposing PFs off the block.
Yi needs more time.
By the AllStar break we will know the real Yi

What people are missing is that it probably will be Thorn’s decision and Proky’s money that determines whether Yi will be a Sub (maybe 6th man) next year.

Normally the top FA’s go first in early July. However, this year, the next level FA’s such as Boozer and DLee will probably go first, because the LeBron’s want to go to a team that he can bring to a championship.

Either via FA or Draft, I can see almost 100% chance that Thorn/Proky and most Nets fans would rather see someone better than Yi as starting PF if the goal is to win a championship. Top teams have to have good players like Yi as backups – top teams win because they can survive injuries to their starters.

Fortunately, the option of DLee allows Nets to solve the backup Center and rebounding/(moderately physical) PF problem, while still allowing Yi plenty of PT, if earned.

The importance of Proky is that he could buy out Najera’s remaining 2 years and leave room to first get DLee, which would increase the chance of getting LeBron.

Hopefully before July 1, Jay-Z will have some idea what it would take get LeBron.

JohnY, obviously RA doesnt get any ‘sour grapes’ in Orlando because he’s like the 7th or 8th man off the bench?
He fills that role fine but if he were to move to the starting PF position (like Yi in NJ) there’d be just as much controversy with him as Yi.
So the best thing to do chill out and wait and see Yi’s progress from now.
On another note I think CDR’s gotta be considered a legitimate building block for this franchise…and not so much Lee. Lee used to remind me of something like a Rip Hamilton, but he seems to be lacking something these days.

Buying out Najera offers minimal savings…whatever the buyout number is remains on the cap. He is supposed to make $3 million next year. The going rate for an NBA buyout is about 70%. So, that means $2.1 million will remain on the Nets cap for next season. He is supposed to make $2.7 million in 2011-12. 70% of that equals about $1.9 million. That would remain on the cap for 2011-12.

The Knicks will not sign Lee early…they can’t. It will reduce their options. I cannot imagine him or his agent waiting on the Knicks. He may want to stay in New York, but money is money. Donnie Walsh will earn his pay in July trying to find the component parts to convince a free agent they will have a solid core to work with in New York. They have no center, they have no point guard. Right now, all they have signed to next year are Eddy Curry, Jared Jeffries, Wilson Chandler, Danilo Gallinari, Toney Douglas and Jordan Hill, who is looking like the bust of the draft.

@mattsimo
Sean Williams was thrown off his college team three years running. In his freshman year, for academic reasons. In his sophomore year, after being arrested for marijuana possession (and resisting arrest). In his junior year, for undisclosed reasons related to detrimental conduct, believed to be drug-related.

In the past year and a half, a court issued a temporary restraining order banning him from returning to his alma mater after police smelled marijuana coming from his car; he asked that the Nets not exercise their option on him; a D-League team returned him to the Nets as a distraction after several on-court incidents—an unprecedented act for a D-League team, and he was arrested twice, once for violating the court order and once for violently throwing a computer monitor at a clerk, charges whose disposition we still don’t know about.

The team has given his agent the right to seek a trade, without any luck. Neither Frank nor Vandeweghe, two very different coaches, have had any use for him, not playing him except in the most extreme circumstances.

Net Income says in the beginning of the article:

“The addition of a legitimate fourth building block, beyond Devin Harris, Brook Lopez and Courtney Lee, could (affect) the draft, free agency, and the Nets’ long-term finances, as well as the rest of a forlorn season.”

Net Income, do you mean you STILL don’t consider CDR a “building block” for this Nets team? Even though Vandeweghe and Thorn have cited CDR as an exemplary player who brings a needed tenacity with his work ethic and performance, you won’t acknowledge it.

I know it wasn’t the basis for the article, but why do you refuse to recognize CDR’s value to this team? Just wondering.

Since I can’t see LeBron, DWade or Bosh going to Knicks, individually, then I don’t know what they would be waiting for, but that’s fine by me. Would Knicks get Amare to be their Center?

If Proky was on board before Feb 21, surely there would be some way to throw in Najera in some clever 3 team deal of expirings (Say Boone+Alston) where Nets would assume a loss for this year?
Isn’t that what Thorn is being paid big bucks for?

Najera is pretty confident about his abilities, so maybe he asks to get out of contract, ASAP, at 50%.

If DLee’s value didn’t rise so much this year, it wouldn’t be so necessary to look for savings. Of course if Nets knew that LeBron wasn’t coming, that wouldn’t be as important.

LeBron is going to screw up a bunch of teams, and there will be dozens of low level FAs still available by mid August 2010. Guess Nets will have to pick up about 5 of them to bring Roster back to 13 or 14.

Netincome:

“but I do not believe either Lopez or Yi are finished products”

thanks for the obvious….2nd year player and to be honest with all of Yi’s injuries, this is probably more equal to a 2nd year also…i’d say these 2 players are FAR from reaching their potential.

Yi is starting to understand the NBA offense a lot better, maybe same thing happens on D?? who knows??
insert same comment for Lopez also.

Net Income:

Exactly. Sean Williams is a disaster. He’s a good athlete and other than good timing when it comes to shot blocking, he has no basketball skills. Coupled with his immaturity and lack of professionalism this guy will be lucky to be in the nba next year. BUST.

Jerry

You hit it right on the head. Yi is a nice prospect and he shows promise but if the nets want to compete at a high level next year they need a complete player at the position. As you noted, good teams have players like Yi coming off their bench. I think Yi could thrive coming off the bench.

@mattsimo : I agree 100% about SWAT. Guy can be exciting to watch, and I want him to succeed but it’s never going to happen. He will be gone by next season for sure.

That being said, I still think people talk way too much about a guy that is so bench-ridden, it’s not like he’s Nate Robinson who has proven he can play bigtime minutes but has fallen from grace.

I think Yi can be good, but they need somebody great to show him how it’s done who is a starter in front of him.

“Jeff Says:

Net Income, do you mean you STILL don’t consider CDR a "building block" for this Nets team? Even though Vandeweghe and Thorn have cited CDR as an exemplary player who brings a needed tenacity with his work ethic and performance, you won’t acknowledge it.

I know it wasn’t the basis for the article, but why do you refuse to recognize CDR’s value to this team? Just wondering."

Net Income has a personal dislike for CDR, it stems back to last season. This is the guy that said that CDR was expendable after the VC trade went down, yet, CDR has outplayed Lee to the point where if the Nets got a legitimate SF, you couldn’t justify starting Lee(who can’t hit the broadside of the barn most nights) over CDR in any fashion. He still refuses to put his foot in his mouth over the issue, but instead tries to find insignificant ways to downplay CDR. Check back to his hilarious post on the message board “How to stop CDR”, where he posted a hot zones page from NBA.com. Yet, CDR still is one of the 4 most efficient players on this team.

This is a guy who is also trying to proclaim Terrence Williams as a bust, right now 2 months into the season. I have a feeling that T-Will is going to make NI look foolish just like CDR has done.

Anyone with a pair of eyes and an objective outlook knows that CDR is just as important to this team’s future as Harris, Lopez, Lee, and Yi.

I love being the only guy in Swat’s corner. Net Income’s last post referred to all the stuff off the court until the end when 2 coaches leading a 3-30 team failed to play him cuz he doesn’t want to play for them since his rookie year. I don’t believe he is good now but imo he is still the best PF we have. His day will come.

Swat day will be comming in the CBA league. I can guarantee you he won’t be in the NBA next year. READ MY LIPS “SWAT IS GARBAGE”

Can we all vote on who the best players are? Can you do that ND and NI? Then we can vote and then if Yi comes up 6th or 7th, then we don’t need so many stories on him…

I want to know what Jarvis Hayes ate for lunch.

Sean Williams? That ship has sailed and sank. Discussion is moot.

Lee has been a disappointment. I like his “potential” for shooting and defense better than CDR – but CDR has guts and has a knack for scoring close to the basket. CDR is a keeper, but ultimately, CDR may be a high level bench player (on the GREAT team I want the Nets to be). Not sure if Lee will pan out here. I can live with a Lee/CDR duo for now.

I liked TWill, but in a short time he’s made me think he’s kind of a young kid jerk. Still very new, so hopefully a high level bench player at the 1, 2, and 3 (on the GREAT team I want the Nets to be).

I love what I’ve seen from Yi for the few games he’s played this year. Still, big holes in the game makes me think high level bench player (on the GREAT team I want the Nets to be).

Yi’s stats in last 5 games
Numbers for Last 5 Games 38.2 35-74 5-12 26-33 1.2 1.0 1.6 3.4 1.8 5.2 7.0 0.2 20.2
I will take that any day of the week.
Lot of you guys are missing the point here, Yi came back strong and played good. He had one off night in the second game of a back to back and still managed to offer reasonably good D and agressiveness(8 FT attempts).

ok first of all it was one game give the guy a break … dont start with all the criticism.

really? all those animated gifs embedded in a page? not good. :(

@NI re Yi. Since his return Yi has showed much improved and more aggresive offensive game, He looked totally intimidated against Cleveland but lets give him a pass and see how the next few games go. What he does not get a pass on is the lousy defense and getting pushed around under the basket. The Chinese Mr. Softee has a special on corn ice cream (See Yi getting a dunk blocked on sat) That has not changed and there does not appear to have been any improvementt there. Not to say that he can’t inprove and get better defensively, but this deficiency remains the biggest question about Yi.

Thus remains the biggest issue: Do Nets pass on drafting a legit power forward in the 2010 draft because of Yi’s potential. If it is Kiki calling the shots he would pass which imo is a huge mistake (as was getting rid of RA because of “duplication”). Hopefully Rod or whoever is making the pick does not. I am with @Mr. Big, you need defense and toughness at the 4 posiition to succeed in the NBA. So regardless of Yi’s development we are still going to need a strong 4 to get better;
I still see Yi as a 3 who can get backup minutes at the 4 depending on the matchups. At some point as he matures and hopefully gets stronger this could change but imo that is what he is now. Remember that is where Harris played him with the Chinese and where Milwaukee was using him before he got hurt.

@netsnut
why trash him as “soft”? He outplayed J.J. Hickson when he was in there, blocking his shot. Hickson is HARD, HARD, really HARD, rock HARD, and yet some SOFT Chinese player blocked his shot. Five blocked shots in two games. Quite SOFT. That block on Al Harrington…VERY soft.

What’s a legitimate power forward? Someone HARD like Hickson…who can’t make a shot further away than half way up the foul line? Sean Williams? SUPERHARD, like STEEL. MAN of STEEL, that Sean Williams. Can’t play a whit, but oh, so HARD.

lol…^ 8)

@ Net Income

Besides the fact that Hickson had 6 reb in 14 min. to “Big time” Yi’s 8 in 41 your perception that a blocked shot on 1 possession constitutes as “outplayed him” is laughable. Maybe the fact that the Cavs were going down the lane at will while big time is getting pushed out and puts his hand up without jumping as his way of contesting a shot is what makes him “soft”. What do you do go thru the tape of 200 games to come up with the 5 good defensive plays he makes and forget about the 7,000 bad ones. We’re 3-30 cuz big time is the best PF we play and if the guy wasn’t Chinese he’d be in the D-league. If you don’t think he is soft then you don’t know what soft is. Face it the guy sucks on D, you wrote it yourself and you know it. The comparison of Swat is old.

@JT Says:
“really? all those animated gifs embedded in a page? not good.”
I agree. You can’t turn them off. They distract from reading. Put em all together at the top of the page if you must. This is serious. Those animations are very irritating.

whatever yi did and the people said is not important. yi’s performance is going on, the nets is going on.

So,lets going on together with our nets, to see how finally yi would be a "Eternal Tease" or "Potential All-Star"?

Hey, just for disclosure, what’s the relationship between the netsdaily site and the Nets team?

…cuz it does seem like the line the team would want towed gets towed.

Paul B., NetsDaily is no shill. You should not impugn his reputation like that. This site is too good for the Nets. If the Nets had something to do with it, you would know it, cuz it would suck. A dead giveaway.

The time will judge everything. Yi is a young guy which we can not blame too much on.

@Mr.Big

We are 3-30 because of Yi? He only played in 1/4 of them. And when was the last time a D-league player average 20-7 in regular NBA games? A lot of NBA starters couldn’t even do that this season. It’s not his fault he is Chinese. It’s not his fault that he is best PF we have now. It’s not his fault that he has marketing value. If we have an American playing professional ping pong in China, are we proud of him and want to give him attention, encouragement and praise? 　

i knew yi will be good but i don’t think he’d be starter good…there’s a good chance he can be a super-sub @ the 4 tho who can more than hold the fort when the nets’ starting pf is not on the court…he’d be good for the most part then have bad games then there will be like 5 games a year when he’ll hang 29pts/15reb/4blk out of nowhere…

I was not trying to impune, just asking… because NI does have the same or very similar opinions to those a Nets employee would be told to espouse. It is coincidence apparently, and that’s cool.

Thank you ND.

Hey @NI. You cite block on Harrington, I cite game on line play against Houston when Yi lets 6’ Brooks go right over him as Yi leans back and away for game clinching layup. At he gets older Yi hopefully will get stronger and tougher but right now he is not there.

Does not matter Yi is a “Eternal Tease" or "Potential All-Star” to Tim
To me he is a star
The quality of a star is makes those people whom does not like basketball to become a fans of that team