The most consistent post move Yi Jianlian displayed during his first two FIBA tournament games against Greece and the Ivory Coast is the drop-step/spin (I’ve yet to watch China’s third game against Puerto Rico). He’s very fluid and adept at using both hands against this international competition. Let’s take a look at some examples of his work in looping GIF form (apologies to those with slow computers/connections).
Here’s a left-handed drop-step hook Yi hit in the first quarter against Greece. He powers by 7-footer Ian Vouyoukas with the set up power dribble and then puts the maneuver in motion. Vouyoukas never really had a chance against Yi’s speed.
Here’s the angle from above, look how much ground Yi covers.
After Yi Jianlian’s dreadful performance in Madison Square Garden two weeks ago, there were legitimate reasons to be concerned about his ability to lead Team China. He missed open shots, he was unable to get comfortable in the post, and his lack of aggressiveness on both ends of the floor seemed to affect the way his teammates played. Luckily for Yi and China, the games were only exhibitions or “international friendlies”.
Saturday morning was China’s opening game in the FIBA tournament against Greece, and Yi demonstrated that he possessed a higher level of play for the games that counted. His first step was explosive and confident, he seemingly grabbed every rebound there was to be had (14 total, 10 defensive), and he played with an attitude that had been missing in his previous performances. In fact, after more than a few baskets, he defiantly glared at Greece’s coach (and former China coach) Jonas Kazlauskas.
Unfortunately, Yi’s 26 points and 14 rebounds were not enough to overcome China’s sloth-footed zone defense, and his team fell to a more experienced Greece, 89-81.
Sunday, Yi and his Chinese teammates took on a feisty Ivory Coast team in the second round, and while he didn’t look as aggressive and explosive as he had the day before, he still put up effective numbers (26 points, nine rebounds, two steals and one block). That performance was enough to lead China to an 83-73 victory, and it also gave me the opportunity to delve a bit deeper into this new version of Yi’s game. Read more »
I woke up Sunday morning thinking I was going to see two Washington Wizards play in the Madison Square Garden World Basketball Festival exhibitions leading up to the FIBA tournament. Center JaVale McGee was going to go against France (after not playing in Saturday’s scrimmage against China), and Yi Jianlian was going to lead the Yao Ming-less Chinese team against Puerto Rico.
I may as well have went 0 for 2.
First, McGee announced via twitter that he had been cut from Team USA (for the second time) along with Oklahoma City Thunder forward, and former Georgetown Hoya, Jeff Green. Then, Yi channeled his inner John Starks, an shot 3-for-15 from the floor, en route to an 11 point, six rebound performance.
Ted Leonsis is pleased as punch with the Yi Jianlian acquisition (or a juice box — the above picture evidently advertises juice, and not milk). Can’t blame him too much … although, there is certainly reason to be skeptical of Yi. I do think he will be a pleasant surprise. It just all depends on your baseline standards for being surprised.
In linking Michael Lee’s Sunday story about Yi in the Washington Post on his blog, Ted’s Take, Leonsis writes:
He is 7 feet tall. He is fast. He is talented. He is still developing.
Yi Jianlian and Team China didn’t fare too well last night … they got routed 86-62 by Andy Rautins and Team Canada in an exhibition match held in Vancouver. (Worth typing again) … China got routed 86-62 by Canada and ANDY RAUTINS! (who led his team with 19 points). The Canadians were up 41-16 at halftime by the way, so China actually won the second half 46-45.
“It’s like we fell asleep in the first half,” Yi Jianlian told the press … not exactly what you want to hear from your number one player. You can read more about the game here, here and here, but basically Canada dominated most aspects of the game — they out-rebounded China 44-25, out-shot them 56.4% to 29.1%, and out-scored the Chinese in the paint 42-10. Wow… miss Yao Ming much?
Yi scored 15 points and only grabbed five rebounds in 28 minutes to go along with two assists, one turnover, one block and two steals. Even worse, he shot 3-12 from the field (1-3 from three, 8-12 from the free-throw line). Reports say Yi was doubled … a lot. And I imagine he will see most international defenses focus on him since he’s China’s best player. In such a scenario, it’d probably help if Yi found his teammates more (or, perhaps, played inside more). Again, Yi only had two assists, and has never been known as the best passer anyway — his NBA career 1.2 assists per 36 minutes is worse than Nick Young’s career rate of 1.7/36 … that speaks volumes. Worth noting that China only had nine total assists as a team.
[Editor's note: While I was out in Las Vegas for the summer league, I caught up with David Thorpe to discuss Yi Jianlian, who Thorpe trained earlier this summer in Florida. Below is what I gathered from my initial discussion with him. Unfortunately, the second part of the discussion was nowhere to be found on my recorder, evidently replaced by around 42 minutes of summer league gym sounds instead. Oh well, I'll try to catch up with Coach Thorpe for a follow-up at some point, but I can't thank him enough for what he has already provided. -Kyle]
{image via bscup.tom.com}
His friends back in China call him “Lian,” says David Thorpe, NBA analyst for ESPN’s Scouts Inc. and executive director of the Pro Training Center in Clearwater, Florida. Thorpe has worked with countless NBA stars, college prospects and overseas basketball talents. And for five weeks earlier this summer, he worked with new Washington Wizard Yi Jianlian.
Back in February, when things were beginning to meltdown for Jianlian in New Jersey — his minutes per game stayed high at 30.8 over 13 games, but his averages dropped to 9.2 points on 34.1% shooting and 7.5 rebounds; this was down from 33.2 minutes, 15.4 points on 42.9% shooting and 6.7 rebounds per over 18 total games in December and January — the player’s group of advisers, including agency Lagardère and agent Dan Fegan, started talking with Thorpe.
Reports have surfaced that Yi Jianlian injured his arm playing for China in an international competition, the Stankovic Cup, held in Liuzhou, China, while getting ready for the 2010 FIBA World Championships in Turkey [hat tip to Matt Moore of ProBasketballTalk]. Initial reports only indicated that Jianlian suffered an “injury” to his right arm, and that forced him to sit out the second half of China’s loss to Slovenia. However, Jianlian came back and played in the next game against Iran.
In their first game on July 28th, China lost 64-63 to Australia. Jianlian led the Chinese with 17 points and 10 rebounds in just over 17 minutes of game time. But Australia’s David Andersen, who was recently traded from the Houston Rockets to the Toronto Raptors, scored a basket in the game’s final 10 seconds to give the Aussies a one point victory. Andersen finished with eight points and seven rebounds. Patty Mills led Australia with 13 points.
On July 29th the Chinese faced Iran and defeated them 86-64. Jianlian had 16 points (7-12 from two-point land, 0-1 from three, 2-2 from the free-throw line), 10 rebounds (two offensive), three blocks, one steal, two assists and three turnovers in 28 minutes of action.
An unfortunate part about being a Wizards/Bullets blogger and only 29 years old (and only having moved to DC in 1990), is that timing has deprived my memory and knowledgeable grasp of franchise history. But we all depend on people before us to tell the stories we don’t know. The more accounts there are, the better depiction we get of what actually transpired. This is what’s so great about team blogs, or “sites” maintained by sources which not apart of main stream media. They provide a more in depth view from wider angles, making the lore that much better for the future.
For my last birthday, a friend gave me ‘The Great Book of Washington, D.C. Sports Lists‘, written by Andy Pollin and Leonard Shapiro and published in 2008. These two guys have an insanely close relationship with sports in the city I love, and they turned to even more brilliant minds for assistance when composing their lists. While the book doesn’t exactly satisfy my desire for Bullets history tid-bits (to be expected in a Redskins town), it comes highly recommended for its Washington sporting facts, which are considered mostly minutia by ‘official’ historical accounts, but extremely savory to serious fans.
In reading, which I still continue to do, some lists twice, I came across some eyebrow raising commentary regarding the relationship between Wes Unseld and Elvin Hayes. I’m almost ashamed to admit that I previously had little knowledge of Hayes outside of him being a great player, and a member of the ’78-79 championship team. I simply haven’t taken the time to dive into research about him as I’ve done for more contemporary figures during my fandom period (such as Kevin Duckworth, Robert Pack, Larry Stewart, Scott Skiles, and Haywoode Workman).
Upon discovering that he played against Yao Ming’s father during his visit to China 30 years ago, Wes Unseld pleaded with the Chinese to get busy in the bedroom and start making more Yao Mings to send to the NBA, preferably in the Wizards’ direction.
Chinese officials promptly snickered and told big Wes not to worry. They then pointed to a “friendly” mascot being held by Caron Butler, which is really a non-lethal DNA collection robot that will be sent back to the U.S. to gather samples from various Wizards (sorry DeShawn, you aren’t needed for this) so they can be combined with that of Ming to create a monster the league has never seen. His name will be Car’Twan-yao Gilwood Ming-Arenas.
via CRIEnglish.com
The robot then expanded after drinking some Tuff Juice and challenged Caron to a game of 1-on-1. The bot, named Haibao, was winning 8-6 until Butler gave it the ‘Crocodile Dundee Gender Test’, confusing Butler and embarrassing the robot. The cruelty of being non-gendered, and having short arms, was too much for Haibao to overcome. It lost 11-9.
In case you missed it last week, NBA commish David Stern strolled into a Harlem barbershop and displayed a skill he’s masterfully crafted, that of the silver-tongued politician. Watch for yourself.
I love how he tells almost everyone “you are right,” before making his own point, or says things like “good question,” while avoiding being patronizing.
Funny, when I say those things in public I come across as a condescending S.O.B. … guess I shouldn’t be telling the homeless guy ‘good question’ after he asks me for some change. Read more »
