Yi having too much fun

Yi Jianlian was spotted drinking and canoodling with his pop star girlfriend, Shi Yanfei, during the wee hours last week when he should have been tucked away in bed as it was clearly past his curfew.

Chinese athletes have been punished for spending too much time on personal life and departing from their prescribed training regimen (which I assume involves sleep) in the past, but officials are saying there is no impending punishment for the basketball star.

"We don't have any rules on penalising (players) and we don't have anything like internal punishment," the China News Service quoted Hu Jiashi, vice head of the China Basketball Centre, as saying while denying the reports.

"We don't have anything like internal punishment" is a funny thing to say in general. What if Yi punched Yao Ming, would there be internal punishment?

In any case, the real story here is how smoking hot Yi's girlfriend is. And from what I've seen of Chinese pop stars, she probably doesn't even have to kneel.

[Yahoo! News Phillipines] | [Sports by Brooks] | [Shi Yanfei]

Yi gets his wish a year late

SI's Ian Thomsen (I had to check that last name spelling) is reporting that the Buck's have traded Yi Jianlian and Bobby Simmons to the Brooklyn Nets for Richard Jefferson.

Not only does this net (haha...) them a potentially great albeit wispy power forward, but it more importantly frees them from Richard Jefferson's semi-ridiculous $15 million per year contract before the great 2010 Lebron Sweepstakes, in which the HOVA's seem to be a major player.

Interestingly enough, though this deal happened on draft day, no draft picks were involved as the Bucks keep their 8th, while the Slavemasters hold onto their 10th.

No Guaranteed Minutes?

Photo by Flickr user Thadkrgr used under a Creative Commons license.

The Bucks announced their opening day starting line-up today and Easy Yi's preseason performance earned him the nod over Charlie V. The rationale was that Yi would fit better with the Bucks defensive style, as he would be able to get back quicker. Moreover, Yi would not command the ball on offense the way that Charlie V does, opening up more opportunities for Michael Redd (like he needs them), Mo Williams, and Andrew Bogut.

One could speculate that there was an arrangement for this to happen so that Yi would come play for the Bucks, but Coach Krystowiak assures us that this is not the case. You might think that the Bucks regret giving up everyone's favorite point guard TJ Ford now though.

Not so lonely after all

As for right now, Yi Jianlian's line looks like this: 11 Points, 1 Rebound, 1 Assist, 1 Steal, 1 Foul. He's also 1-1 on three pointers. He just needs to pick up 1 turnover and 1 block to complete the line (currently at 0 on both measures). I just find that funny for no particular reason.

Update: Easy Yi's final boxscore is as follows: 12 points, 2 assists, 4 rebounds, 1 steal, 0 blocks, 2 turnovers, 4 fouls, 4-11 FG, 1-2 3pt, 3-4 FT in 27 minutes. Not too shabby, but not nearly as cool.

The Reprise

Sorry for the week-long mini hiatus, I know all you regular readers out there were hankering for a Pure Point. Or at least more pictures of Alyssa Milano it seems, according to my site statistics which tell me that fully 80% of my traffic last week came for that reason.

I spent a lot of time analyzing film from the recently completed Stankovic Cup, in which Slovenia (4-1) took home 1st prize, and China was award second. Yi, as always, was masterful in some games and nowhere to be found in others.



Luckily enough for me, Sina.com put up the entire game tapes of some of the matches. Unluckily, by entire game tapes, they meant 4 20-minute videos that needed to re-buffer every 10 seconds and then cut off halfway through. Watch only if you are prepared for extreme tedium (which I was).

I was especially amused by their "Dunk Show", which apparently just means highlights, as it was jsut an assortment of jumpshots, lay-ups and putbacks. However, they have a separate video for highlights, so I'm not really sure.




In any case, it would be an understatement to say that Yi exploded against his first almost NBA-caliber opposition since the Summer League. Helped by the fact that he was probably taller and quicker than anyone guarding him, he went off for a dominating 28 points and 15 rebounds against the D-League Ambassadors. During this game, he utilised the moves that I implored that he use in my previous post, going most often to a sweet-looking baseline jumper just inside the International 3-point line. Whenever he hit that shot (which was always), the commentators said something to the effect of "And there's Yi taking his favorite shot," which makes me wonder why he almost never used it during the Summer League. In terms of rebounding, he was able to box out effectively, and go out of his area to pull down boards with authority.

I'm going to chalk up most of the increased stats to playing against weaker compitetion, as I've never heard of any of the D-League Ambassadors (Renaldo Major was their leading scorer?). Nevertheless, he seemed to be playing with a conviction that was greater than what we saw a month ago, as he knew that he was better than the opposition and wanted to show it.



Sun Yue, drafted by the Lakers, had a strong performance in this game too, piling up 12 points, all in the third quarter. He also had a bunch of brilliant passes, and probably would have ended up with more assists if the recipients didn't let the passes hit them in the face as much (this didn't actually happen, but it might as well have). At many points during the game, the commentators were like, "It's great to see such a tall guy have such a nice handle and feel for the game." Sun Yue is no Shaun Livingston, but he does have the vision and intuition that Chinese guards seem to lack, and should make for a servicable passing SF in the NBA.

The Trials and Tribulations of Yi Jianlian

Cross-posted at "Pretty Random Ramblings"


Non-Basketball Fans can stop reading this post now.

This is the type of post that I would usually make in a comment on a certified sports blog (and be shot down), but I feel like my blog is actually becoming a viable medium now with readership higher than it has ever been. Also, I was banned from commenting on Deadspin for reasons unbeknownst to me.


Here you will see my unabated and very biased opinion on Yi Jianlian's performance at this year's NBA Summer League. I have a lot invested in this kid, as I've followed him since he was 16 (and I was 15), and a lot of my credibility as a person hinges on how well he does in the league, since I have been hawking him for the last 3 years. He's even been my profile picture for the majority of this blog's existence.



So far, he's proven far below expectations and sports writers are not slow to label him as likely being the biggest bust of this year's draft. But I'm going to give a fairly in-depth analysis of how he's actually played beyond the stats, from what I've gathered after watching 3 of his 5 summer league games (7/6 vs MEM, 7/8 vs. CLE, 7/11 vs. BOS).

Disclaimer: I'm not a sports expert or analyst or even journalist, just a fan. So my arguments carry about as much weight as those from Bill Simmons. I kid, I love The Sports Guy.

Statistics:12.4 PPG, .255 FG%, .800 FT%, 4.4 RPG, 0.8 APG, 0.6 SPG, 1.4 BPG, 4.6 TO, 7 PF

Analysis: Looking at the stats alone brings a pretty sorry sight. His scoring rate, while decent, is far from superstar-like. As for peripherals, his Curry number [Turnovers - (Assists + Steals + Blocks)] is an whopping 1.6. On top of that, he's getting 7 fouls per game, which I'm going to venture out and say is among the league leaders.

So here's a point-by-point breakdown of what I've seen in those categories.

Scoring Rate and Shooting Percentage: This seems to be the biggest knock on him so far. As evidence, here is a transcript of that was said between me and Hank Worrell on his blog, Winning the Turnover Battle

Loren: Did you see the buzzer beater Yi hit today (Maybe like 20 minutes ago)? Double-teamed (close to triple), turnaround, about 8-foot bank shot... I'd call it even Duncan-esque. And possibly enough to push the Yi Meter at least slightly closer to Kukoc? Granted he shot 3-11 from the floor, so maybe his current placement is warranted.

Hank Worrell: Yeah, the fact that he has shot 30% from the floor in his three summer league games is a bit worrisome for a big man who was highly touted for his shooting touch. I watched the game tonight though, and he was pretty active on defense and made some nice passes and moves on the perimeter. His poor shooting justifies his place on the Yi Meter for now, IMO.

I agreed with that sentiment at the time, but now after watching more games, and footage from all of his Summer League games, I've changed my opinion. Yi's poor shooting percentage right now I think has as much to do with his own performance as that of his teammates and the style of his team.

Almost every single play I watched (probably about 75%), he was setting up a pick and roll at the top of the key. The pick was often poorly set or executed poorly, as Yi often not even make contact with the defender (also, sometimes the point guard didn't go towards the pick). In any case, when he rolled down to the block, he was usually able to establish position on his defender and call for the ball. But the ball never came to him, rather the ball handler would just dribble around some more and then pass it to a wing who would jack up a quick 3. There's no way Yi is going to get into a rhythm when he's only getting 5 or 6 shots a game while watching Wang Shipeng and Wang ZhiZhi get 10-15.

On the other hand, when he has gotten the ball, he hasn't been able to do much with it, save for some flashes of brilliance. He hasn't shown the array of post moves he had displayed in China and in workouts (against a chair). He hardly ever goes to his jump hook, which should be pretty effective, nor does he pull up on the baseline. Almost every time, when he catches the ball in the post, he dribbles twice and then tries to power through the defender or go for a quick up-and-under, which is usually unsuccessful. When he catches the ball along the baseline, he just drives toward the basket, whereas I'd enjoy if he employed a Yao Ming-esque baseline jumper, which I know is in his arsenal.

That said, Kevin Durant is shooting 25% from the field as well, and people just call it adjusting to the NBA physicality and pace.



Rebounding: Yi is getting a paltry 4.4 rebounds per game in summer league after pulling down 11+ in the CBA. Normally I'd say that this is unacceptable for a 7'1" guy who jumps through the roof, but after watching a few more games, I don't think he is the issue.

Yi is the only, no exaggeration, Chinese player who is boxing out on plays. He's not great at rebounding out of his area, but when the ball does come toward him, a weak-side player from the other team just soars in and takes it away.

The Chinese team as a whole doesn't even try to get offensive rebounds either, as they are already running back as soon as the shot is released. I don't know if this is just how things are coached in China or what, but they don't go for offensive rebounds, and as a result they are also passive on defensive rebounds. I think they expect the other team to just give up on offensive possessions as well when the shot is released, so they don't put a lot of effort into the rebounding. As a result, Yi's rebounding rate suffers.



Passing and Defense: As Hank said, despite having very few assists and steals, Yi's passing and defense are actually very solid. He seems to be one of the only Chinese players who makes a pass with a sense of purpose and urgency, instead of just lazily flipping it around (Zhizhi is good at this too). His post defense is impressive, though he does get beaten from time to time due to the opponent just being a lot stronger than he is.

Fouls: This is another big knock on the kid. A marquee player should not be getting forced to the bench by getting 7 fouls per game. But again, this is hardly Yi's fault. Every single one of (lone exception being Sun Yue, though he is often outquicked by the smaller point guards, e.g. Rajon Rondo) the Chinese guards plays Steve Nash defense. What that means, to people who don't know, is that they stand in a somewhat defensive position, but then when the offensive player starts to drive, they just get out of the way. This leads to a lot of plays where a guard is running full speed directly at Yi, at which point it is usually either basket or foul. Look at what happened to Ben Wallace's defensive prowess when they took away Chauncey Billups, Tayshaun Prince, and Sheed. He still got his fair share of blocks (though not nearly as many as he did at his peak), but he wasn't the game changer that he was. What makes Tim Duncan so great is how he can overcome the defensive shortcomings of Tony Parker, but he still has ballhawks, Manu Ginobili and Bruce Bowen, impeding players' progress.

On the other hand, at this point, Yi's defensive timing and decision making aren't perfect. He jumps for the block too early, which is where a lot of his fouls come from, whereas he'd benefit from staying on the ground slightly longer and gauging what is happening before jumping to meet the ball, a la Marcus Camby. He has the athletic ability to not have to pre-empt the shot, so he doesn't need to be over-aggressive in that way. Also, he doesn't need to block every single shot that comes at him. I know it's against canon and the eternal maxim of "Make him earn it," but sometimes it isn't worth it. Take a charge like Varejao, or just don't go up with the him.

Miscellaneous Notes: One thing that isn't commented on that much is that Team China played 5 games in 6 days, which is more than any team at any level plays ever. Teams are notably tired on the second half of a back-to-back, but China had scheduled three in a row, then one day of rest and then another back-to back. It isn't surprising that Yi had his best game in the first game of Summer League, and his production declined from there.


Conclusion: Yi definitely has a lot he can work on. At this point in his career, he probably will not be able to beat out Charlie Villanueva for the starting spot unless V is still dealing with his injuries and general hairlessness. However, he's not as bad as his stats suggest, and moreover, it's summer league, give him a break.


Finally, as a comparison:

Kevin Durant Summer League stats: 18.0 PPG, .250 FG%, .882 FT%, 1.0 RPG, 0.0 APG, 0.0 SPG, 0.0 BPG, 1.5 TO

Greg Oden Summer League stats: 9.5 PPG, .600 FG%, .125 FT%, 3.5 RPG, 0.5 APG, 0.0 SPG, 3.0 BPG, 4.0 TO, 9.5 PF