well i'd be happy with 17/9, but really i'm looking for a bit more. I'd like him to physical in the paint, play some decent defense, and maybe have an assist or two. I'd like to see him alter some shots ( you know show some presence in the paint ) and maybe a block or two. In other words, not play like he has in the past 3 games or so. Its really the perfect type of opponent for him and i'd really like to see the "potential" everybody here is hyping up. You know like a normal starting nba power forward. Its just hard for me to understand how you can be seven foot and be so invisible. I know there is a learning curve here and since he was " given" the starting spot in the rotation because of his potential, it would be nice to see it every once and a while. Is that asking too much from the Yi apologists??
Like I posted in the other thread, Just because Yi is not scoring himself, doesn't mean he's invisible. If he's standing in the corner dragging a defender out to create open lanes for Harris to drive, he's contributing. If he set some good picks for VC or Harris for a open shot or open lane to drive to the basket, that's contributing. expecting him to score 17 points is absurd when there is no play ran for him. If the other teams decides to leave him alone and send his man to help with others, he could burn you with 27 points like he did in Clippers game.
MVP Anderson need to get his head out of his ass and take Yi's starting job. Simple as that, I'm out.
Forget about points right now. He commits far too many fouls, and gets far too few offensive rebounds. Over the past four games, for instance, he has grabbed a TOTAL of 1 offensive rebounds and gotten one steal and two blocks, while committing 13 fouls. When he gets close, he gets his shot blocked a ridiculous 29% of the time (according to 82games.com). On the plus side, he is committing fewer turnovers thatn he was earlier in the season. Still, he is a net negative in number of possessions. He also lacks consistency. I will give you a string of numbers: 0, 6, 0, 8, 6, 0, 2, 2, 0. Those are the number of free throws he has taken in the last nine games. Too often he exhibits no aggressiveness at all. He should be taking roughly ten shots a game. Often he hits that number, but he has had a few games, like the last one, when he has taken just four shots. Many of his shots are taken when he is open, but he misses far too many of them. Over a nine-game stretch ending three games ago, he shot a pathetic 33-for-86, or 38%. That includes his 27-point game! In the other eight games during that stretch he shot just 24-for-71, or 33.8 %. How can that possibly be acceptable? He has shown hints that he can be a productive contributor, but there are just too many times where he just doesn't contribute at all.
taking free throws is linked with possessions and shots per game. Committing fouls can also correlate to bad team defense, it can mean a lot of things. Besides, we already agree Yi can be more productive, that's said over and over. You don't need to try and blind me with numbers. However, ALL the PF on this Nets team is just as bad and unproductive. So, it's not isolated to Yi. You have to give some of the blame to the system. Just like how the system and coaching gets credit for Harris success.
the stupid fouls and inability to draw fouls have nothing to do with his potential. How can a PF get a total of one OR over a four-game span? It is pathetic.
i agree 100% but some here now are blaming coach Frank for not running enough plays here for Yi. Do you think Ryan Anderson could put up better numbers if inserted in with the starting unit? Personally i do and now i understand why frank has him in there. He's waiting for Yi to sink....
What is disturbing is that his numbers look incredibly similar to what they were last year. I can accept that Ryan Anderson also commits way too many turnovers, has an erratic shot, etc. He is a rookie. He also was never expected to be anything more than a sixth or seventh man type. It just doesn't seem that Yi is developing. It is especially disturbing if he turns out to be 24 years old after all.
I think Ryan's numbers would be similar, but Ryan does have a knack for getting under the basket and he has that nifty reverse layup. Ryan also seems to move more effectively without the ball. However, Ryan is a rookie with one month of experience, and could be as much as four years younger than Yi. I'd love to see Yi succeed, and he has shown some flashes of great play, like when he drives through the lane without the ball and puts it down. But too often it seems like he is just standing around, and he misses far too many shots for a guy with his experience and talent.
Why over use the word potential when you don't even know what it means? Looks like you are having way too much fun with it.
Listen Ryan isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but for a one month rookie he does show alot more bb IQ than Yi. His shot is as good or better and he has a knack to be able to get to the line where he is a very good foul shooter. If given the same chance Yi has had i would predict that Ryan Anderson would put up similar numbers, or most likely better numbers. Also, Ryan Anderson is a better rebounder than Yi, and does get offensive rebounds as well...
I think Ryan is awesome and have thought so ever since the summer league game I attended, and now wish I had interrupted his lunch and chatted with him after the game. But at this point I think that any improvement would be marginal at best. If Yi should be replaced, maybe it should be Najera once he is healthy. I'd rather Yi just get better, though. I think Najera will be used in the fourth quarter and whenever the Nets want to slow down the opposing offense when things are getting out of control.
Nagera would be a good enforcer type and a banger. He can change the pace of the game that is for sure. But there is a reason he's not been a starter his whole career, but has been a great role player.
Back to Yi, some of his fans here believe that he isn't getting enough touches. I assume that many of you haven't followed the Nets before Yi was acquired, but a good comparison would be Nenad Krstic, who was the fourth option on offense but still consistently put up a decent number of points, and showed steady improvement until his injury. His second year, which we'll use for comparison to Yi, he averaged 13.5 PPG on 11.0 shots. Shot over 50% (not entirely comparable since he didn't have quite the range of Yi, but he did have a nice 15-foot jump shot). Took 3.3 FTs a game. 2.3 offensive rebounds a game. 3.7 fouls and 1.7 turnovers in over 30 minutes per game. But more importantly, these numbers all were improvements from his rookie season; his numbers improved over the course of the year; and he really broke out the following year before he got hurt (averaging 16/7). If Yi can replicate the numbers Krstic put up as a second-year player, everyone will be happy.
I didn't watches the Nets unless they were playing the Sixers or the Rockets, but you might as well be talking about two completely different teams. I don't have problem with the number of Yi's touches but where he is touching the ball. Before Yi joined the NBA, he was a low post player. He's got a good turn around jumper, a nice spin move and a jump hook and a few other low/high post moves. He had his outside range, but that was only a small part of his game. His game was like a Chris Bosh with some more range. Of course that was against some really crapy competition. But the point is, he had to change his game from power forward to a shooting forward, it's like asking Dwight Howard trying to play like Dirk. He has to pick up everything from scratch, everything from where to be on the floor, to rebounding position, etc. everything is new. When Yao came to the NBA, he faced a lot of challenges, but he didn't have to change his position or his offensive game completely. Yi now really faces more challenges than Yao did. To someone who never watched Yi play before, you would wonder why the hell he's so inconsistent. To me, the reason is obvious. There is a reason all the Chinese posters are crying for Yi to get some touches in the low post, that's what we were used to see and that's what Yi did so well before joining the NBA. I see good things in Yi's future, once he get better at the outside game, maybe he will be allowed to pick some of his old game up and become a varsitile player.
Also the Nets run no plays for yi at his new position, it would be awfully hard for him to really produce consistently.
