Yi the Bust?
Aug 25, 2009 Yi
Kelly Dwyer over at Ball Don’t Lie has put together a Top 10 list regarding the biggest draft busts of the past decade. The good news is, no one the Nets drafted made the cut unless you count the “entire 2000 draft” entry at #2 (though it doesn’t seem like Dwyer is lumping Nets #1 pick Kenyon Martin in that entry). The bad news is a player who is expected to play a key role in the upcoming Nets season made the cut – Yi Jianlian who was taken sixth overall by the Bucks in 2007 and was ranked #10 in Dwyer’s list.
Naturally, now that Yi is a Net, I’m going to get a bit defensive about his inclusion. While the list includes a number of players who have had adequate time to prove themselves as busts, including three top three picks in Adam Morrison (3rd pick, 2006), Darko Milicic (2nd pick, 2003) and Kwame Brown (1st pick, 2001), I find it difficult to believe that Yi should be considered a bust after two seasons in which he battled injuries throughout.
Dwyer writes of Yi:
He makes the fringe of this list merely because he’s still in the league, but after two full seasons in Milwaukee and New Jersey, it’s pretty clear what Yi is all about. And it ain’t unrealized potential.
Again, it’s been two seasons. The guy was averaging 10 and 6 and shooting about 39% from behind the arc before injuring his pinky finger last season. No, those are not “the next Dirk” numbers, but they’re hardly bust-worthy. The end of the season was a disappointment for sure, and I would have been fine if Thorn was able to move Yi in the off-season for something worthwhile, but I think the phrase “bust” is used a little too loosely here.
Fortunately, as we’ve discussed here at NAS, Yi has bulked up and looked halfway decent in the FIBA Asia Championship this summer, so let’s see if Dwyer needs to revise the list next season.
The Vince Carter Era: A (Lack Of) Appreciation
Aug 25, 2009 Vince Carter
In a recent blog post on his web-site, Vince Carter pens a rather sentimental piece about running a basketball camp in New Jersey despite being traded to the Orlando Magic earlier this summer. In the post, Vince says he’s still “a bit sad, surprised, and excited” about his new location before heaping praise on the Nets organization and its current batch of players, who he still considers friends and wants to see succeed. It was a classy post from a guy who seemed to really enjoy his time in New Jersey.
I wish I could say the feeling was mutual. As a Nets fan, I was never able to fully embrace Vince Carter ever since he was acquired in 2004. I always saw him as a player who would perennially underachieve given his talent. Someone who could get you to the playoffs, but disappear in the critical junctures of a game. Someone who filled a stat sheet. The Alex Rodriguez of basketball for those of you who follow baseball (though I tend to think some of the criticism A-Rod gets about his play on the field is unwarranted). I didn’t even need to read about how Carter didn’t give his all towards the end of his tenure in Toronto, despite the fact that he was heralded as a conquering hero in Raptor-land in the early 2000s. I think that was plainly obvious to anyone watching the 2003-04 version of Vince Carter, compared with the 1999-2000 Vince Carter.
More Nets v. Devils Reaction
Aug 25, 2009 Brooklyn, Opinion
To piggyback on Sebastian’s post yesterday, is this not-so-subtle dig coming from the same franchise that threatened to move their team to Nashville after winning the Stanley Cup in 1995? Look, I know you run the risk of being knocked loopy when you play hockey, but I figured the front office/marketing folks would have a better grasp of their own history before deciding to come across like a bunch of Lindsay Lohan-esque mean girls.
For starters, in terms of distance, it’s not like Brooklyn is on the other side of the globe. I work with plenty of people who live in New Jersey and commute into lower Manhattan every day. I’ve gone to bars on the Lower East Side that have been invaded by the Garden State (and to be fair, Long Islanders). It’s not like the Nets are threatening to move their team to Los Angeles. If you actually want to follow the Brooklyn Nets while still living in New Jersey, you should be able to with no problem and you might even get the chance to go to a game in a new, state-of-the-art arena. How awful.
And like Sebastian said, it’s not like the state of New Jersey hasn’t had ample opportunity to embrace the Nets. As a New Yorker, the Izod Center isn’t the most accessible arena in the world, but that hasn’t stopped New Yorkers and New Jerseyians from packing Giants Stadium for Jets and Giants games, which is part of the same sports complex. You can’t not show up for games for years, and then all of sudden act betrayed by the thought of moving a train ride into NYC away.
I’m glad the Devils have so much Jersey-pride. But I do hope all of the Garden State folk out there who are given them a big “atta boy” remember that the Devils, at one point, were as disenchanted with Jersey as the Nets are now. He who lives in glass hockey rinks, shouldn’t throw pucks at the Nets.