Welcome! Please take a few seconds to create your free account to post threads, make some friends, remove a few ads while surfing and much more. ClutchFans has been bringing fans together to talk Houston Sports since 1996. Join us!

Yi Jian Lian to enter NBA 2007 Draft

Discussion in 'NBA Draft' started by kingkow, Nov 2, 2006.

Tags:

Page 18 of 32

ooliverb1 Member

Joined:

Aug 23, 2002

Messages:

1,159

Likes Received:

1

Wow. I thought we were discussing about Yi's draft strategy/position here. How that leads to arguing about Yao???

#341 ooliverb1, Jun 7, 2007

MacGreat Member

Joined:

Nov 5, 2006

Messages:

644

Likes Received:

0

Jonhty said:

you're so full of ****. Kwame Brown flatout sucked not only in his first few games of career, but his entire career. so did Michael Olowokandi. both were #1 pick. No team is gonna release a #1 pick after just 1 season no matter how much they suck you idiot.
Click to expand...

You are an idiot for not being able to read. Your post actually agrees with what I have been saying. Learn to read.

#342 MacGreat, Jun 7, 2007
MacGreat Member

Joined:

Nov 5, 2006

Messages:

644

Likes Received:

0

pryuen said:

If you have followed the full Yao Ming's career, you'll know in his first 2 to 3 games, he was still adjusting to the NBA game and tempo; as I mentioned above, he had skipped the preseasons, and training camp that year, as he had to represent his country to play in the 2002 World Championship, so he was not in the conditions for the first 3 to 4 games. But starting his 5 to 6 of his games, he was already demonstrating good offensive/defensive skills from the bench.

It was during that 10 initial games, that he awed the NBA world with a 31/35 FG%.....and why do you think Rudy T had opted to start him for Kelvin Cato, if he flatly sucked out in his games right after the 10th game, if he was not good enough ??
Click to expand...

Oh, pryuen caught a mistake of me. BIG DEAL! I guess that's enough for him to celebrate in the next 3 months. Alright, maybe not the whole first year, maybe just the first few games. Now let me rewrite my post:

Yao flat out sucked in his few games. He was given play time to develop by the Rockets only because he was the #1 pick, otherwise he would have been riding the bench and released after the first season.
Click to expand...

Oh, Pryuen, thank you to have taken time off from writing novels, opppp I mean......doing translations , to pick on a minor mistake of me here. I have to take it as a compliment.

#343 MacGreat, Jun 7, 2007
langal Member

Joined:

Nov 13, 2004

Messages:

3,824

Likes Received:

91

MacGreat said:

Oh, pryuen caught a mistake of me. BIG DEAL! I guess that's enough for him to celebrate in the next 3 months. Alright, maybe not the whole first year, maybe just the first few games. Now let me rewrite my post:

Oh, Pryuen, thank you to have taken time off from writing novels, opppp I mean......doing translations , to pick on a minor mistake of me here. I have to take it as a compliment.
Click to expand...

Hey there is a big difference between a few games and a season.

I get your point. The Rox would not have invested the time in Yao if he were just a free agent but I still disagree.

He was a number 1 pick BECAUSE he was a great talent and a good player already.

Also - we had Cato starting. Yao would have gotten a look. Not quite like Darko trying to crack the Pistons's rotation.

Now if Yao were a low pick and we had Hakeem or Moses in there already? Then - yes, he may have languished on the bench especially under the wrong type of coach. The Rox would not have invested as much time and effort in developing him and no he may very well not have been the player he is today.

But I don't think he would have sucked. Coaches will take notice of good players (they do practice everyday after all) and a good player will eventually get his chance to play regularly.

#344 langal, Jun 7, 2007
pryuen Member

Joined:

Mar 8, 2003

Messages:

4,316

Likes Received:

0

A short CCTV5 video on Yi Jianlian's training at Home Depot Centre

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/cWCevRxA-UA/

#345 pryuen, Jun 8, 2007
dback816 Member

Joined:

Oct 21, 2003

Messages:

4,506

Likes Received:

160

MacGreat said:

Oh, pryuen caught a mistake of me. BIG DEAL! I guess that's enough for him to celebrate in the next 3 months. Alright, maybe not the whole first year, maybe just the first few games. Now let me rewrite my post:

Oh, Pryuen, thank you to have taken time off from writing novels, opppp I mean......doing translations , to pick on a minor mistake of me here. I have to take it as a compliment.
Click to expand...

Minor mistake? Pretty big mistake actually. Since when is making mistakes a good thing to do? Thanks for showing us your lack of understanding for this team and the game of basketball as a whole. Not to mention the bitter attitude you seem to have for whatever reasons.

Yao earned those extra patience/attention he got because he was a great player and the #1 pick. Not the other way around

#346 dback816, Jun 8, 2007
pryuen Member

Joined:

Mar 8, 2003

Messages:

4,316

Likes Received:

0

dback816 said:

Minor mistake? Pretty big mistake actually. Since when is making mistakes a good thing to do? Thanks for showing us your lack of understanding for this team and the game of basketball as a whole. Not to mention the bitter attitude you seem to have for whatever reasons.

Yao earned those extra patience/attention he got because he was a great player and the #1 pick. Not the other way around
Click to expand...

Well, I don't know when I have offended this guy MacGreat.....

He always claimed that I made up stories or put in my own thoughts or exaggerations in the many translations I did for this forum.

And reading between his lines, and from how he made up his nick, obviously the guy could be a TMAC fan who does not like Yao Ming a bit.

So this whole so-called minor mistake is not really a mistake, but just a convenient excuse he used to back-pedal from his previous claim, when most of the posters here could not agree with his view that Yao Ming was a bust and flatly sucked in his rookie season, and that he could have just sat on the bench and be cut/severed from his rookie contract after one season, if not just because he was a #1 pick that he was given lots of play minutes that he did not deserve.

#347 pryuen, Jun 8, 2007

AstroMech Member

Joined:

Oct 11, 2006

Messages:

178

Likes Received:

0

There's a chad ford insider article ib ESPN about yi as well as a rumor of a deal in the making about ron artest to houston... can anyone post it?

#348 AstroMech, Jun 8, 2007
ooliverb1 Member

Joined:

Aug 23, 2002

Messages:

1,159

Likes Received:

1

Look, I got nothing agaist Yi, just felt his agent really did him a huge disservice. What Ainge said can't be encourage for Yi...

Yi against Chair... said Ainge.
http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/articles/2007/06/08/brewer_thornton_are_impressive/

Ainge and Rivers traveled to Los Angeles Wednesday to watch a workout featuring Yi. According to Ainge, the Celtics have seen Yi play more than a dozen times for either his Chinese pro team or the Chinese national team. Watching Yi run through predetermined drills was far from ideal, prompting Ainge to joke about the workout.

"It was a good workout, Yi against a chair or a coach," said Ainge. "That's how some of those workouts are beautiful. The chair played good defense a couple times . . . I saw Yi play three times at the end of the season this year and I've studied almost every game he's played that we have tape of, so I feel like I have a good feel for him."

Yi is not the only prospect placing restrictions on how and where workouts take place. Count Kansas's Julian Wright and Brandan Wright among those ranks, too.

"Different agents have different philosophies of this whole process," said Ainge. "We have some ideas of what we'd like to see in a workout and how we'd like to structure them, but the agents don't see things that way. We've got to go see Jeff Green, which is understandable. He's still very seriously considering going back to school and doesn't want to incur the expenses. Yi's agent doesn't think it's in his best interest to go against other players. Brandan Wright really doesn't want to go against other players. Julian Wright doesn't want to play against other players.

"I don't know who's driving those things. I think there's a difference of what you have to gain and lose. It's business decisions. Some agents have had great success not working out against other players. Some feel there's a need to do it."
Click to expand...

#349 ooliverb1, Jun 8, 2007
pryuen Member

Joined:

Mar 8, 2003

Messages:

4,316

Likes Received:

0

On ESPN Insider, Chad Ford wrote about possibility of Yi Jianlian joining Phoenix Sun or Portland Trailblazers.

The Celtics' Danny Ainge traveled to Los Angeles on Wednesday to take a look at Yi Jianlian in a private workout. Yi worked out for nearly two hours in a gym by himself and then spent several hours with Ainge.

The same drill was repeated on Thursday with the Atlanta Hawks GM Billy Knight. On Saturday the Bulls will get a look at Yi.

The feedback from the workouts has been positive. Yi looks great in that environment. The question is whether he has the toughness to play that way when you put nine other players on the floor.

Next, Yi's camp will sit back and gauge feedback. If none of those teams commit to drafting Yi, then Sacramento likely will be the next team to visit.

If Boston is passing on Yi, I think that means we might see a trade coming. There's talk that the Suns -- to slash payroll -- might be willing to take the No. 5 pick, Theo Ratliff's expiring contract and Delonte West for Shawn Marion. That would make Paul Pierce happy.

With the No. 5 pick, the Suns could replace Marion with Yi, Jeff Green or Al Thornton. In the Suns' system, all three of those guys could play the four.

Another dark horse in the Yi sweepstakes might be Portland, which is trying to get another top 10 draft pick. As I've mentioned before, the Bulls seem like a possible trading partner, with Zach Randolph involved.

Can you imagine the huge front line of Greg Oden, LaMarcus Aldridge and Yi? Wow.
Click to expand...

#350 pryuen, Jun 8, 2007
pryuen Member

Joined:

Mar 8, 2003

Messages:

4,316

Likes Received:

0

And on Sports Illstrated, it wrote about Golden States Warriors wanting to trade up to Yi Jinalian.

http://www.fannation.com/truth_and_rumors/view/5930

Actually, not that surprising about the rumour about Yi Jianlian joining Golden States Warriors. In fact it is a public secret that Dan Fegan wanted Yi Jianlian to be drafted to Golden States Warriors, given his strong background and relationship with Golden States Warriors in the past.

A look in the various NBA players Fegan represented, and the coaches that he arranged for Yi Jianlian well illustrated that Fegan has a long history of working close with Golden States Warriors.

In fact, in the open media day for Yi Jianlian's workout (the bunch of photos I posted above) in Home Depot Centre in Carlson, there is only 1 scout invited other than 40 to 50 local and international media.

And that guy is Mitch Richmond, the Special Assitant to VP, Chris Mullin, Vice President of Golden States Warriors.

#351 pryuen, Jun 8, 2007
WNBA Member

Joined:

Jul 15, 2002

Messages:

5,365

Likes Received:

404

ooliverb1 said:

Look, I got nothing agaist Yi, just felt his agent really did him a huge disservice. What Ainge said can't be encourage for Yi...

Yi against Chair... said Ainge.
http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/articles/2007/06/08/brewer_thornton_are_impressive/
Click to expand...

Yi should thank Ainge if he is not drafted by those hopeless eastern teams.

#352 WNBA, Jun 8, 2007
YallMean Member

Joined:

Mar 20, 2003

Messages:

14,284

Likes Received:

3,815

ooliverb1 said:

Look, I got nothing agaist Yi, just felt his agent really did him a huge disservice. What Ainge said can't be encourage for Yi...
Yi against Chair... said Ainge.
http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/articles/2007/06/08/brewer_thornton_are_impressive/
Click to expand...

Means nothing. Will see about it on the draft day.

#353 YallMean, Jun 8, 2007

pryuen Member

Joined:

Mar 8, 2003

Messages:

4,316

Likes Received:

0

An analysis on possibility of Golden States Warriors trading up to get Yi Jianlian from the taboo website here on Clutchfans site.

Warriors: Yi-haw

By Garrett Wilson

Jun 8, 2007, 15:07

With the draft fast approaching, the Warriors find themselves between a rock and a hard place. Golden State is clearly talented enough to make the play-offs, but appear to come up a little bit short on talent as championship contenders. Chris Mullin is going to have to find an impact frontcourt player to get his team over that hump. The only problem is that Mullin has neither the financial resources nor a high draft pick at his disposal to fill his team's need.

That doesn't mean that Captain Buzzcut is without recourse. With Golden State pressed right up against the luxury tax threshold, acquiring an established talent on the trade market will prove extremely difficult and expensive. It is hard enough convincing teams to give up quality big men, it is even harder to make such arrangements work within the salary cap system. What is much easier though is acquiring draft picks, a cheap and often effective source of impact talent.

When it comes to this draft though, the Warriors won't waste their breath chasing the likes of Greg Oden or Kevin Durant. The two big fish in the draft will be far too pricey to acquire, but a draft slot a few picks later will be significantly cheaper. The ideal scenario for the Warriors in this draft is to move to the fifth slot and take the Chinese mystery man, Yi Jianlian.

At best, Yi projects as a moderately more athletic Dirk Nowitski (which would naturally be right up Don Nelson's alley) or at worst, an Asian version of Nikoloz Tskitishvili (yikes). While it would be a sizable gamble on Golden State's part, the potential reward would be much higher than sitting tight at #18 and taking Jason Smith (who is equally as likely to be a flop).

Getting Yi in a Warrior uniform could be a huge help on the court, but an even bigger help off the court. Bringing a potential Asian superstar to an area with a heavy Asian population could ensure that the Oracle Arena is sold out every night for the next decade. Then there are all the media coverage and merchandise sales that come with such an international star. Just look at how big Yao has blown up in Houston. That is the kind of box office earning power any team would like to get their hands on. In fact, the kind of money that Yi could bring in would be more than enough to offset whatever forays into luxury tax land Warrior management might choose to make in the coming years in pursuit of a championship. Even if Yi turns out to be a total stiff, he'll likely sell a boatload of tickets and jerseys before the general public figures it out, which should be ample enough time for Chris Cohan to stuff his coffers and make the Warriors financially secure.

But if Yi is such a gold mine, surely every team would want a shot at landing him. While that statement is likely true, that doesn't mean every team actually has a chance at securing his services. The Chinese government still tightly controls Yi Jianlian and will definitely have a say in where he ends up (much as they did with Yao Ming). That means they will do whatever they can to scare off any team that is non-competitive, from a small market and/or from a market with a small Asian population. Fortunately, the Warriors showed some major signs of life this last season and now safely meet all the qualifying criteria to at least vie for the approval of Yi's handlers. That leaves the Golden Staters in a very small group of suitors (along with Boston, Chicago, the LA teams and possibly the Knicks). The only trick left is acquiring a high enough pick to take Yi.

That pick is almost certainly going to be the #5 selection in this year's draft, which belongs to the Boston Celtics. Boston could very well hold tight and take Yi, but their interest in Jianlian seems to be the reluctant kind. The Celtics had planned around getting either Durant or Oden this off-season and seem to be scrambling to come up with a new game plan. The tenuous nature of Boston's rebuilding plan is something a capable front office should be able to take advantage of to acquire their draft pick for relatively cheap.

With only a few weeks until the draft, Chris Mullin will have his work cut out for him if he really does want to get Yi (especially with Rod Higgins leaving the franchise). If he fails, he better have a good Plan B.
Click to expand...

#354 pryuen, Jun 8, 2007
MacGreat Member

Joined:

Nov 5, 2006

Messages:

644

Likes Received:

0

pryuen said:

An analysis on possibility of Golden States Warriors trading up to get Yi Jianlian from the taboo website here on Clutchfans site.
Click to expand...

Golden States whould draft Yi and then trade us Baron Davis and Andris Biedrins for Yao. Then they will have their dream Asian front court and we will have our championships. Everyone will be happy. Just do it.

#355 MacGreat, Jun 8, 2007
ooliverb1 Member

Joined:

Aug 23, 2002

Messages:

1,159

Likes Received:

1

pryuen said:

An analysis on possibility of Golden States Warriors trading up to get Yi Jianlian from the taboo website here on Clutchfans site.
Click to expand...

For all those have warm fuzzy feeling toward Warriors draft Yi -- go check out their fan wet site on realgm...

#356 ooliverb1, Jun 9, 2007
YallMean Member

Joined:

Mar 20, 2003

Messages:

14,284

Likes Received:

3,815

MacGreat said:

Golden States whould draft Yi and then trade us Baron Davis and Andris Biedrins for Yao. Then they will have their dream Asian front court and we will have our championships. Everyone will be happy. Just do it.
Click to expand...

Maybe dream asian front court has better chance than two broken backs to the ring.

#357 YallMean, Jun 9, 2007
ooliverb1 Member

Joined:

Aug 23, 2002

Messages:

1,159

Likes Received:

1

MacGreat said:

Golden States whould draft Yi and then trade us Baron Davis and Andris Biedrins for Yao. Then they will have their dream Asian front court and we will have our championships. Everyone will be happy. Just do it.
Click to expand...

You must be joking, right? Yao fro Baron Davis and Biedrins???

#358 ooliverb1, Jun 9, 2007

rocketman1979 Contributing Member

Joined:

Apr 26, 2005

Messages:

1,666

Likes Received:

14

Confucius would agree with you.

YallMean said:

Maybe dream asian front court has better chance than two broken backs to the ring.
Click to expand...

#359 rocketman1979, Jun 9, 2007
nyquil82 Member

Joined:

Oct 30, 2002

Messages:

5,174

Likes Received:

3

It's not the Chinese government that controls him, its the CBA. Yes the CBA is a government sponsored organization, but its so far removed, it's like saying that when a kid gets detention in public school, that the American Government is imprisoning him.

Reporters need to get their facts straight or stop being r****ds when it comes to oversimplifying other countries.

#360 nyquil82, Jun 9, 2007

(You must log in or sign up to post here.)

Page 18 of 32

Share This Page