The Bratwurst – Milwaukee Bucks Blog

With the news that Yi Jianlian’s season is over due to a sprained knee (fortunately, nothing so serious as to put his Summer Olympics plans in jeopardy) it is time to ask the question: Do we know any more about the guy than we did in October?

I’m not so sure we do.

After a pretty encouraging start to the season, Yi’s game fell apart in a very disturbing way after the New Year. He finishes the season with a 0.610 IPM, good for #272 in the league and #108 among forwards. Most disturbingly, he only ranked as the eighth best Milwaukee Buck, right there with Michael Ruffin.

First the good: at the outset of the season, Yi appeared to be a much better rebounder and shot-blocker than expected. His jump shot seemed to legitimize the “Dirk Nowitzki clone” comparisons.

But then we saw Yi try to finish inside. He got his shots blocked again and again … and again. According to 82games.com, Yi finishes his rookie year having gotten 36% of his “in close” shot attempts, and 11% of his dunk attempts, stuffed. His shooting percentage from “in close” was 31% (compared to 47% for Villanueva and 52% for Bogut). He is simply awful at finishing or drawing fouls.

The excuse of Yi hitting the “rookie wall” and getting tired doesn’t really carry much weight with me. It is true that Yi played a lot of ball last summer and never got a rest, but that is a fact of life for international players. Yi, much like Yao Ming, is never going to get a summer off. After the 2008 Olympics, next summer he will play in the 2009 East Asian Games, and following that the 2010 FIBA World Championship. I just hope that this “Yi is tired” excuse doesn’t pop up every season. Summer ball is a fact of life for him and he has to be able to handle it.

Most great players show glimpses of their impending stardom by the end of their rookie season — and we didn’t see that from Yi. Even when he was playing well early in the season he seemed more like a solid player with a good all-around game. But other than the form on his jump shot, there wasn’t much “greatness”.

Thin, athletic seven-footers like him are tough to figure out. Does he have the post game to play center? Is he strong enough to play power forward? Is he quick enough to defend small forwards? Does he handle the ball well enough to play the 3? Even a season in, not so sure about the answer to any of those questions — the answer might prove to be “yes” — or “no” — to all of them!

But honestly, he strikes me as someone who might be best suited as a fantastic sixth man, considering his ability to play multiple positions and create mismatches. But I think I might want a more physical power forward as my starter.

As an average rebounder and with an offensive game that seems restricted to 14-20 feet from the basket, he has a long way to go to become a valuable starter on a good team.