man wish we could pick him up, we kinda need a PF on a real note im pretty sure we're going to see alot of highlights with yao and yi in them.. going to be pretty interesting to watch.
remeber he is a raw begineer to weights, and he is tall, not hard to put that much muscle on when your like that. and gain strength real quick
Yi Jianlian took a trip to Phoenix together with his team mate Du Feng, and his US agent Dan Fegan to watch Game 5 of the Phoenix Suns versus San Antonio Spurs.....
Chad Ford's ESPN INSider article.......... LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Five years ago, China's gentle giant, Yao Ming, came into the NBA surrounded by wonderment and mystery. Fans on both sides of the Pacific couldn't get enough of Yao's smile, old-school charm and stereotype-smashing size. He was unique -- we had never seen a ballplayer quite like this, a 7-5 center with refined skills. We had certainly never seen a player like this from China. Even after watching Yao dominate in international competition, many NBA GMs and talent scouts weren't convinced. Yes, some thought Yao was the next Shaq. But others were thinking Michael Olowokandi. Since then, Yao has gone on to become perhaps the best traditional center in the NBA. His game has improved steadily and remarkably every year. He is a cultural icon in both the U.S. and China. With more than a billion people in the basketball-crazed nation of China, it seemed likely someone would follow in Yao's footsteps. That time is now. Yi Jianlian is here. Yi is a top prospect and he's 7 feet tall, but he's not a center like Yao. In fact, as draft prospects go, he's more like Kevin Durant than he is like Greg Oden. For the past few months, a number of NBA general managers and scouts who have followed Yi closely have said he's the third-best prospect in the draft. But for many others around the NBA, he remains a mystery. Earlier this week, I spent two days with Yi, watching him in the gym and hanging out with him around town, to see for myself what had created such intrigue in NBA circles. What did I find? For better and for worse, but mostly for better, Yi represents a new generation of Chinese players more influenced by Allen Iverson and Tracy McGrady than by Yao Ming. CHAD FORD'S WORKOUT SCHEDULE May 12-13: Los Angeles Jason Smith, Nick Young Insider May 14: Los Angeles Joakim Noah and Corey Brewer Insider May 15-16: Los Angeles China's Yi Jianlian May 17-18: Chicago Julian Wright, Thaddeus Young, Javaris Crittenton, Alando Tucker May 19-20: Indianapolis Greg Oden and Mike Conley May 21: Washington D.C. Kevin Durant (tentative) May 22: New Jersey Draft Lottery May 23: New York Ante Tomic, Petteri Koponen and Artem Zabelin May 25-28: Florida At Florida IMG with Al Horford, Al Thornton and others May 29-June 2: Orlando Orlando Pre-Draft Camp June 9-12: Treviso, Italy Reebok Eurocamp (Marco Bellineli, Rudy Fernandez, Kyrylo Fesenko and others) CHINESE GUYS CAN JUMP Several top draft prospects are working out in Los Angeles, including Joakim Noah and Corey Brewer of Florida and homegrown star Nick Young of USC. But for the past four days in L.A., as I traveled from gym to gym, the chatter wasn't about two Gators or a Trojan. Yi, who has been living in L.A. for the past month, has been making the rounds and earning awe and respect everywhere he goes. "Have you seen the Yi kid yet?" Young's trainer Don MacLean said after I watched him work out Young and Jason Smith on Saturday. "That kid was amazing." "The dude can play," Young chimed in. Then, with a wide grin, he proudly declared he had dunked on Yi in a workout. "When you see him play, you'll know how impressive that is." Different gym, same buzz. At the Home Depot Center, trainer Joe Abunassar interrupted a discussion of the players he's training to say, "Wait until you see Yi. There isn't a drill I could come up with that Yi couldn't excel at." Noah was giving love, too. "Where did that guy come from?" Noah asked when I asked him about his workouts with Yi. "That's something to behold." That "something to behold" walked into the Velodrome at the Home Depot Center at around 11 o'clock on Tuesday to unveil the mystery. It was worth the wait. After a brief warm-up, Yi began his shooting drills. He rarely missed. He got great elevation on his picture-perfect jump shot -- high release, elbow in, nothing but net from both inside and outside the 3-point line. Nevada's Nick Fazekas, a draft prospect known for his shooting stroke, followed suit on the set shots, but started to lose ground to Yi once the players moved to shooting off the dribble. For Fazekas, the accuracy started to waver a bit. The needle didn't move for Yi. And Noah? His shaky jumper found the basket, but his form looked even worse when he was matched up in shooting drills with Yi and Fazekas. Yi handled the ballhandling drills with the same aplomb. He got low to the ground, showing impressive balance and control on spin moves to the basket. Fazekas could do some of that too, but at a pace far slower than Yi. Noah kept up the pace with Yi, but without the consistency. Noah was all over the place, for both the good and the bad. None of this came as a shock, given the basketball system in China. Yao likewise showed an amazing set of fundamental skills when he crossed the Pacific. Since he was 15 years old, said Yi, he's been put through five-hour daily practice sessions. Noah, in contrast, said he taught himself how to shoot and never really knew there was anything funny about his shot until he exploded onto the scene as a sophomore at Florida. As we saw again in the playoffs this year, for all his skill, Yao Ming lacks NBA speed, agility and explosiveness. Yi, on the other hand, is reputed to be a good athlete -- fast and bouncy. But until now, that rep has been based primarily on what he's shown against lesser players in China. So what's he got? One way to find out was to see him next to Noah, a very athletic big man. Could Yi keep up? It didn't take long to get the answer. After the shooting drills were over, Yi, Fazekas and Noah went through a drill in which they took the ball at the top of the key, cut right or left, were given one dribble and then had to finish around the basket. While Fazekas labored to get to the rim from that distance, Noah had no problem, as expected. He finished every time with either a finger roll at the rim or a dunk. Yi's performance was more surprising. I had to change angles to make sure it wasn't an optical illusion. As Yi finished at the rim, his elbow was often at or just below the rim. Yi Jianlian Clive Rose/Getty Images for DAGOC Yi can jump. Now the question is how high in terms of the draft? His elbow. Whether he kissed the ball high off the glass or finished with a dunk, his explosion off the floor was impressive. Not impressive like Tyrus Thomas, mind you. But for a 7-footer, he could really explode. Yi continued to impress in full-court sprints, flying up and down the court. His pull-up shots around the basket looked nearly impossible to block, thanks to his impressive 7-foot, 4½-inch wingspan. He also possesses great lower body strength, which should help him hold his position on the post. His upper body appeared to need work, but given his good frame and the progress he had already made in his daily workouts, it appeared that he was well on his way to filling out. At 246 pounds, Yi is nearing his prime playing weight. Whether in the post, on the wing, or in the open floor, Yi looked as impressive in workout conditions as any elite NBA draft prospect I've come across in the last five years. Purely in terms of talent and tools, I have no doubt he's the third-best prospect in the draft. BUT CAN HE PLAY? Is Yi ready for NBA competition? This is a more difficult question to answer. I didn't see Yi do anything but drills in the two days I watched him. His workouts made clear that his athleticism and skill level are at the NBA level. But as I've learned from somewhat painful experience over the years, what a player does in a workout doesn't always translate to a 5-on-5 basketball game. I've seen him play about a dozen games on tape from China. In some, he's been dominant. In others, he's been a little disappointing. A number of NBA general managers and scouts flew to China to watch Yi's Guangdong Tigers play in the Chinese Basketball Association finals, and they came away with mixed feelings. He clearly did not play his best, and questions about his motor, aggressiveness and toughness have been raised. That concern should be tempered by the fact that he's listed as 19 years old. However, some say he might be 21, and some say he's even older. There's an ongoing question about what Yi's true age is, because there was a time when his birth year was listed as 1985 before later being listed as 1987. What does Yi say? He points to a passport that says his birth year is 1987. Regardless of his age, his production suggests he won't just be a workout wonder. He scored 24 points per game (on 57 percent shooting) and pulled down 11 rebounds per game this season in China. That puts him in contrast to past draft prospects such as Nikoloz Tskitishvili. Before going fifth in the draft, Tskitishvili had barely played competitive basketball at all, and he was evaluated almost entirely on workouts. Yi has been playing and excelling, both in China and in international competition. He impressed everyone with a 13-point, seven-rebound game against Team USA last year at the World Championship. But that was just one game. That question -- can he play? -- remains a significant one. But there's another concern floating around, too. IS HE READY? Yao Ming's success in the NBA has been based, in large part, on his amazing mental toughness. The demands placed upon him, on the court and off, are unique and exhausting. Can Yi handle the same stresses and strains, the weight of the world? Yi already has the Chinese media camped at his doorstep. In China, 14-year-old girls scream for him on the streets. An entire nation is waiting to see if he can fill the footprints of a national icon. Jianlian Yi #11 Paul Kane/Getty Images Yi Jianlian is a 7-footer who can shoot it from 3-point range. It's heavy stuff. Two days weren't enough to learn everything about Yi, but what I saw was an individual who amazed me with the speed with which he adapted to the U.S. and the NBA way of life. That process has taken years for Yao Ming. Yi already conducts interviews and conversations in English, meaning he won't need an interpreter following him and translating his every utterance. He takes English classes every night to improve, but his skill is already pretty impressive. Yi is already independent. He drives on his own in L.A., finds his own restaurants and hits the nightlife, including red-carpet walks for the movie premieres of "Spider-Man 3" and "Shrek The Third." He listens to hip-hop music and jokes around with American players. He plays video games and dresses like a young star, with the requisite Sean John jeans and Jumpman shirt. The decision by his agent, Dan Fegan, to bring Yi to the U.S. early so he could get acclimated before training camp should pay off big on the court, too. His daily workouts include lessons from NBA players and a former NBA assistant coach on what he can and can't get away with in the league. When the 2007-08 season comes around, Yi will have a big head start in the acculturation process. He's already comfortable, it seems, with a life full of basketball, media appearances and travel. He also has a sense of humility about the whole thing, with great respect for Yao. But he doesn't want to be Yao. He has his own game, his own style and his own dreams. Now, if only Yi can land in a place as nurturing as Houston was to Yao. If he can find the right home (as I discuss in today's blog entry), Yi has the potential to be every bit the star Yao is, both in America and abroad. But if he doesn't land in the right place, all of his enormous basketball potential might not translate to NBA success. That makes Yi the biggest risk/reward player in the 2007 NBA draft.
well it's starting to look like this guy won't have a chance in hell of dropping to us. may be a silver lining though. This guy will most probably be called away every summer to train/play in international games.
Another Chad Ford article on Yi. Should Rockets trade up and get him? Frankly I think he is going to end up in 7-10 range. So we just need to trade with another team like TWolves who doesn't need another PF and get him...
For Yi to maximize his potential, he needs to be drafted by a team that's committed to developing him the same way Houston was with Yao Ming. Imagine Yi in Houston. He could be the athletic PF with long range that we needed so badly. Especially playing alongside Yao, who can give him guidance and support. If only we could somehow trade up and get within top 10, nearly impossible in a deep draft, but one can only dream.
See Yi Jianlian in action !! Found this short video on the ESPN front page, showing Yi Jianlian in all kind of drills, including running from the baseline for dunks and alley hoops, shooting his long range jumpers, attempting his free throws, showing some of his low post skills....... And I have to say.....his English is not bad, not bad at all; at least he can understand what is being asked, and can express himself clearly. http://espn.go.com/ Just go all the way down in the left hand corner, click onto the Yi In Action arrow, just above the Columns and Features.
Actually IMO Warriors is the perfect fit for him. Sun has too much talent for him to play any meaningful minutes and they always use a short 8 man rotation.
Video of Yi Jianlian training and his interview. <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/KyADXpenxzU"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/KyADXpenxzU" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>
The warriors don't pick until 18th he will be gone. After another playoff exit the Suns will make changes and they can't keep all their expensive players next year anyway.
LOL !!! WTF there for ?? To see and meet Chow Yunfat ?? Or to have a day off at Disneyland?? Or just make use of this opportunity to start showing his face to increase awareness and popularity?? Yi Jianlian will be there at the worldwide premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean III !!!
