So let me get this straight...we took 3 projects last night?

<div class="quote_poster">Mamba Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Is it not the truth? Please tell me why you think Sun Yue is going to be an effective NBA player?</div>
He can be an effective NBA player because of his passing skills and versatility. He's athletic, has good court vision, lengthy, and has a natural knack for shotblocking. He's got the tools to be good, maybe not a starter, but he won't disappear in a year like you're so quick to proclaim.

The quality of competition in the CBA, by the way, isn't "piss-poor". They play a more early 2000-era style with big men as the focal points of their offense. I guess if you think it's really piss-poor then Yi Jianlian won't pan out either.

That doesn't even matter because Sun hasn't been playing in the CBA for the past two years.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Mamba Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I know, I was talking about the league he was in, not the CBA.

Why won't he be coming over this year? The Lakers don't expect him or Gasol to come over until next year, and Yue possibly two years from now.</div>
Well when I was reading up on him before the draft I came across this quote:
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">
<div style="padding-left: 20px;">There is a big difference between the upper echelon ABA teams and lower rung ABA teams. I don’t even count lower rung ABA teams because they are jokes. They don’t even have enough uni’s for everyone and players often show up late for games. However, the upper echelon teams, IMO, are better than your average NCAA D-1 programs because the players are proven and they are men. In the ABA, teams don’t care whether you’re from a top program like UCLA or a no-name junior college. They only care if you can play. That’s why you often hear of players you’ve never heard of playing really well in the ABA, while others with strong pedigrees don’t do anything impressive in the ABA. Examples are Paul Shirley (who played for the Suns two seasons ago and was one of the last players cut from the T-Wolves this season). He played for Aoshen last year and was completely useless. Other recent NBA players like Byron Russell and Tremaine Folks also played in the ABA this season or last and did nothing.
Given the way Sun Yue plays the game, I think he can be effective in the NBA, but there will definitely be an adjustment as there are for all players. I remember Derek Fisher’s first season with the Lakers … he could barely get the ball up the court against tougher defenders, and I used to cringe every time he had to do it against Gary Payton, because he’d get stripped half the time. Sun may go through such growing pains, but he definitely has the talent to be successful in the NBA.</div>

http://hoopsaddict.com/2007/04/23/sun-yue-...ect-or-suspect/

Feel free to take that with a grain of salt but if it's true, the ABA would be around the NBDL level.

As for Sun's future, as far as I know I don't think he'd be held back from signing with the Lakers due to contractual obligations. He's not part of the CBA so the Lakers won't have to negotiate with the Chinese government for his release as extensively as with Yi Jianlian or Yao, and the Aoshen team should have no qualms about the Lakers buying out his contract. The only reason that seems possible is that Kupchak wants Sun to develop in a minor league without taking up a roster spot, which makes some sense given that with the players ahead of him on the Lakers, Sun would probably be stashed in the NBDL anyways.
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