you guys comparing Yi to Dirk and KG are freaking insane. this guy reminds me more of stromile swift if anything. yao looked great in the videos before he got here and dominated his competition in China. Yi simply does not. Yi is not a great rebounder and won't be a great defender. He has some nice athleticism but that doesn't make a basketball player good.
Or you can just say: Best case scenario: Less accomplished KG Worst case scenario: Stromile Swift (with brain * 1.5) So yea he's comparable to KG skill-wise. Just not at his level by any stretch. On side note, a couple local media news claimed Yi as 22-year old today. Wonder if Yi and his team finally is letting people know his true age via media outlet.
no you can't just say a less accomplished KG. you can't even mention his name in the same breath as KG. Yi is not a good rebounder for his size. He allows himself to get lost in the game. His handles are not worthy of a NBA 2 or 3. His defense is not great. In fact, nothing in his game compares to KG.
maybe because china has a history of altering its athletes' ages to gain advantages on international junior competitons. bur I personally don't care about his age as long as he's good. look at deke he's probably oldest in his draft class but how many have had a more accomplished career?
I know. And the latest breaking news is Yao is actually 36. And that also explains his stamina problem.
Yi is not so great a rebounder now, but that doesn't mean he can't be one in his NBA future. Same goes for handles and defense. Yi is, after all, not even an NBA player at this moment. Just think back to when KG was still in high school, I doubt his handles and defense are much better than Yi is now. Let's see this in different angle: Yi's best will be Chris Bosh now. Agreed? Is Chris Bosh a poor man's KG? You could make the case, as both are lean, agile, and prefer to play facing the basket.
so you admit his rebounding, handles, and defense are all lacking yet you still continue to want to compare him to KG or bosh? ...and yes everything about KG's game coming from high school was much better than Yi is now. Yi does not have a high ceiling. he just is not that good. just because he is tall, chinese, and more athletic than yao doesn't mean anything. in a peek year i can see Yi averaging 10 pts and 5 rebs. thats it.
oh, why argue... so many people said yao is a bust... go figure if you don't compare yi to kg, then who do you compare him to? steve nash? yi runs the open court better than kg, was brought up as a guard when he was shorter, over 30 inches leap, has a decent jumper, rebs blks well... why would anyone wanna be measured up against swift dude... of course you wanna compare with someone who is good, like KG or bosh
that's true there is no point in arguing. we will only know when he gets in the league. i just get annoyed seeing insane comparisons. like when yao came out people wanted to compare him to rik smits which was stupid. i knew from reading everything about yao and watching video on yao that he would become a great player. i don't see that with Yi. he is a nice athlete but he gets lost in the games. maybe he will develop more, but let's not forget that yao had Wilt-like numbers in china before coming over....yi is simply not close to that.
I wouldn't compare Yi to KG at this point but you never know how well a player will develop in the future. How many players who were not super gifted physically devloped into great players (Bird, Nash comes to mind) while other physically much more talented players became complete stiffs in NBA? We will pick up this issue again in three or four years and see where Yi is at then.
I like that he's not afraid to play hard under the basket ...but... his shooting range seems limited while his handles aren't that good... We don't know how he'll respond against tough competition when his dunk attempts are going to be contested by bigger and more athletic ppl than he's used to... in the international competition with China nt he wasn't that impressive either... There's a lot of hype around his name but he isn't so dominant as Yao was in CBA...
