Comments on: You Can’t Blame Yi for Everything

By: Rob

Rob — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:27:18 +0000

And i mean that in a detrimental way.

By: Rob

Rob — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:26:51 +0000

As they say, there’s stats and then there’s the scout’s eye. While I’m glad that Yi is getting his devil’s advocate argument here, I’d say that just purely watching him and seeing his effectiveness (non-quantitative), you can tell that he’s so much more than what number tell us.

By: Johnny

Johnny — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:52:00 +0000

I think mike summed it up the best. True, the Nets are bad as a team. Yet,you need to take into consideration the affect that a player has on his teammates beyond his statistics. Bad attitudes, low basketball iq, terrible effort and poor defense, to name a few, negatively affect how players work together. None of these things are measured in statistics. With that said, how could you possibly feel comfortable, establish any type of chemistry or trust a player like that. Yi continued to get opportunity after opportunity to start and play major minutes and to prove what, He is terrible! So his affect on this team goes beyond statistics.

By: calling all toasters

calling all toasters — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:50:05 +0000

I also don’t think Yi has been the major problem with the Nets this year. But going forward… I believe the best teams are the ones which are not just highly talented, but also communicate at an extraordinarily subtle level. Everyone knows where everyone is, and knows what they’re likely to do. Yi is probably at his best with a bad team– when his shot is working and he’s willing to go hard to the hoop, he doesn’t need to know anything and he doesn’t need teammates. No one’s going to be able seriously interfere with his shot 18 feet out. But a good team will need him to be able to work within the offense all the time, in case his shot isn’t working, and there he’s terrible– slow to pass the ball and often unready when it’s passed to him. (BTW, I don’t really see him as having bad hands as much as slow reactions) And this type of game, one where the rest of the team isn’t involved, is not helpful to the team’s development. They all need to learn to read each other, and all these one-and-dones don’t get them there. If Yi grew up in the US, the game would probably be a lot slower to him and he’d be very effective on a consistent basis in certain matchups, and would be able to integrate with the team better. But the game is clearly a blur to him, and I think this pattern of injury/starter/injury is the worst possible thing. He needs limited time on a consistent basis to help him absorb what just happened. Then, maybe, he’ll begin to get it.

I think this year has NOT been a successful development year, and the poor coaching has actually hurt Yi about as much as anybody. Ironic.

By: Tony

Tony — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:49:37 +0000

Honestly i think Yi is a much better player than hes playing now. Neither hes playing with an injury or hes just getting bad coaching.
His defense and shot selections should have been fixed at this point of the season, the nets have been doing a horrible job developing him.

By: The Mid-Afternoon Milk Mustache, featuring the wrath of Bateer | Stacheketball, an NBA Blog

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:44:05 +0000

[...] The English: Nets fans like to use Yi Jianlian as a scapegoat, but you can’t blame him for all of their troubles. [Nets Are Scorching] [...]

By: Mark Ginocchio

Mark Ginocchio — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:10:07 +0000

This is my last comment here because I really don’t want to come across as the author who can’t take criticism, but those who are saying the statistics are overblown – I just want to point out that the statistics say what we already know – the Nets are a bad team (about -2.7 points bad) when Yi plays. I just found it interesting how many players have a lower simple rating than Yi. I made Yi the focal point because of his recent injury, but the real title of this article should read all Nets besides Brook Lopez (and Keyon Dooling in a smaller sample) make the Nets bad.

By: sdsc

sdsc — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:07:16 +0000

@Ezra No. You’re not the only one who woke up from the honeymoon.

@Mark G. I know you’re trying hard to put together a case here for Yi whether he is at fault or not. However, all of these so called sports stats fail miserably when taking into account the “rules” of statistics. The obvious one that comes to mind here when adding PER and the on the court/off the court differentials is independence. There is an obvious overlap in points and other “productivity” measures that are built into bother PER and +/-. The combined stat isn’t usable unless you take out that overlap (whatever it may be. I doubt it’s even possible to figure out how to measure the overlap). Stats like the ones conjured up by all those stats sites are useless because they don’t hold any inferential value. It helps pay the bills and keeps the fans entertained to some degree but please don’t call it statistics. It’s not you Mark, it’s the whole culture of stats crazies.

I prefer the eyeball test. You look at their off the ball movement, setting the picks, coming over the screens, etc. Sometimes, their effect isn’t measured in +/- or PER. From what I’ve seen from Yi, I’d puke on some nights but once in a while, there’s a glimmer of hope.

By: yd

yd — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:44:24 +0000

Yi is like the next sexy thing from China..keeping him, or playing him, for that matter, goes way beyond basketball..this is marketing, boys

By: mike

mike — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:33:40 +0000

I don’t need advanced statistics to form an opinion on Yi. I see him getting lit up by opposing power forwards, contributing nothing on offense, missing rotations, and demonstrating a frighteningly poor bball IQ consistently.
I wish we had the Yi that came when he cameback from injury. Making open jumpers, taking it strong to the rim, posting up small players. How’d that guy completely disappear?