Thursday, August 2, 2007

Yi Watch: Day 36, continued


Yi vs. D-Leaguers: The kid can play

Yi Jianlian had 28 points and 15 rebounds in China's surprise 82-67 thumping of the NBDL Ambassadors this morning in the final game of the Stankovic Cup (Yi highlights above). In his best performance of the summer, Yi buried a number of perimeter shots in addition to showing off his arsenal of spin moves and turnarounds in the post. He finished 10-13 from the field and 8-12 from the line (box). In five games Yi averaged 18.4 ppg and 10.4 rpg, both tops in the tournament.

According to one of the Chinese posters on RealGM, in his post-game interview Yi was asked about the chances of his club team Guangdong next year and he prefaced his answer by saying something to the effect of "Even though I won't be with them anymore..." It's no secret Yi wants to be in the NBA next year, but hey, every little bit of confirmation is encouraging.

3 comments:

alex said...

So he might be worth all this trouble after all? Looked very good...

Mike Pape said...

He'll be OK, I think, when playing with real NBA talent around him. Now, if only he could give the Bucks toughness and rebounding in addition to his offensive skills.

Great, great blog by the way. It's now a daily stopdown for me as a Bucks fan.

-- epthnation.com

frank said...

Thanks Mike.

The skillset and physical tools are there. I do think he will get signed and from there who knows--the transition to a new league and new country won't be easy. But long term he's got the chance to be a very special player.