No. CBA is baaaad. Certainly not a strong league by any stretch of the imagination. Competiton level is low. But the advantage of having Zhou over there is that we don't have to have him on the roster. To play Dleague we would need to either sign or renounce him. Hopefully he goes to Europe next year.
He looks skilled, but also terribly soft and NOT explosive. He makes Kristaps look like Julius Erving. Also, where is the funk? He dunks the ball like a big ass nerd that has never jumped before. Yao had the funk. Bootsy Collin had the funk. The Parliament had the funk. WHERE IS THE FUNK JOE CHEE???
The thing is, I think he's actually put on weight since the draft. At his rate, he'll be skills ready two years in two years, and weight ready four years in fours years.
Joe Qi dunks more than Yao did when he first came over... right? Didn't Yao say that back when he played for the CBA no one dunked/it was a sign of disrespect, etc? 7' 2, nice shooting touch, 21 years old. No rush. Doubt he leaves China to play in Europe. We'll have to develop him here. Clint Capela X 3 in terms of time and effort but i guess we could give him Bobby Brown's spot on the roster...
Yao was averaging 32 ppg and 19 reb in the CBA at 21 years of age. Qi might one day make it to the NBA but odds are against it. If he can shoot lights out from 3 then he'll land in the NBA if he wants but that frame will never carry weight well.
Yao was playing in a much weaker CBA. Today's CBA has many former NBA players, and is considered to be very physical according to some returning NBA players. Kevin Pelton developed a statistical method to translate CBA performance to NBA(varies by age). Zhou Qi has the best translated stats in 2016 draft. In last few years, Pelton's pre-draft translated stats considered Capela and Jokic as top 5 players in respective drafts. Qi may not be that good, but he has high potential. Qi and Blatche dominated the CBA finals game 1 yesterday against Yi and Boozer. Hopefully he can win CBA this year and join NBA soon,