NAS Awards: Most Frustrating – Yi Jianlian
When the team you follow can run out a guy who’s 7-feet tall, can stretch a defense by hitting a bunch of threes, and is long enough body-wise that he’s able to block some shots and grab rebounds, you want to believe this guy is capable of becoming a major player in the NBA. Unfortunately, that same player is maddeningly inconsistent offensively, is one of the worst defenders in the league, and seems to lack every other physical tool outside of length. What you get is the Nets’ “Most Frustrating” player in Yi Jianlian.
Perhaps problem number one for me was having any expectations at all for Yi headed into this season. But after seeing him bulk up and put together a strong showing in the Asia Cup games last summer, I allowed myself to believe that at the bare minimum, Yi could develop into a league average player at his position. After missing a majority of the first six weeks of the season with a knee injury – Yi proved me wrong – he looked like an even better than average player, scoring 22.5 points on 54 percent shooting in his first four games back from injury. What was even better was how Yi was doing it – an assortment of inside and outside moves. Kiki Vandeweghe immediately tried to instill a “twin towers” strategy on offense, with most plays running through Brook Lopez and Yi. The results were a disaster. Brook’s offensive production took a short-term hit, and Yi faded back to the player he was in his first two NBA seasons: 13.4 points per game with woeful 39 percent shooting in January. It’s also no coincidence that January was probably the most embarrassing month for the Nets last season, including back-to-back losses against the Warriors and the Jazz where the Nets were blown out by more than 30.