CHAD FORD ON YI

[BusBoyIsBack]

Just imagine if Yi turns out this good

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9mn6b0sjo4

Man we have to take this chance

[Buzzard]

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It's funny how people discredit Chad Ford all day, every day. Then Chad says this Chinese guy who nobody has seen play is the real deal. All of a sudden now Chad Ford is smart.

You have to work these players like Conley and Yi out against other players at their position before you can make an assesment. Until then all of this name calling that's going around is a waste of internet space.

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Chad Ford only knows what he hears and then prints. He could not do a on site evaluation of a teenage Shaq. The only way he would know if Shaq was the real deal is if half a dozen scouts told him so...

I like the idea of Yi but will leave the evaluations to the experts ( not Chad lol). I have no idea what this guy can do and I am not about to start acting like I do; just because I saw a few film clips.

Conley and Law on the other hand, I am sure will be starting PG's in this league. If we draft Yi, he better damn well pan out or BK will be unemployed at the end of next season. If not sooner....

[Buzzard]

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Yeah, like calling mass amounts of people "idiots" because they currently favor significantly more talent and the 2nd or 3rd taken Pg than significantly less talent and the 1st Pg taken...then assuming the moral high ground denouncing name calling. That's classic. Nice A-hole move there.

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In one post you state the only way to know for sure is to evaluate in person; then in this post you claim Yi and Wright have "significantly more talent". Hmm, did you go with your daddy Chad on his trip to "evaluate" Yi?

You are pretty much slamming Conley supporters for the same thing you are doing all over this board. This is not ironic Walter; it is hypocrisy in its truest form.

Honestly, you should ask Chad Ford to adopt you. Like father, like son; you know what I mean.....

[Plainview1981]

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Didn't we hear this kind of stuff about Darko? The Hawks don't have room for more unprovens.

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Darko wasn't nearly as athletic or as proven.

Darko like Tskitishvilli was mostly taken off of potential

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What has YI done?

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For one he's actually played ball.

Skita didn't even play ball.

Darko barely played ball overseas and the most points he average in his limited time was 9 PPG.

Meanwhile Yi is an MVP of a tea that was going for 3 titles.

Yi is a guy who played vs TEAM USA garnering compliments.

He is a whole lot more proven and it's not even close

I remember having to explain this for Bargnani last year when people were comparing him to those two.

Except Yi even has more playing time than Bargnani.

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Is the league he plays in any good? If it's some piece of crap league it doesn't matter if he's played on a team going for 3 titles. Besides, playing on a team going for 3 titles doesn't make you great. Steve Kerr and Scott Williams were not great players and thy have 2 or 3 rings.

"Yi is a guy who played vs TEAM USA garnering compliments."

Chris Arroyo was killing the USA Team correct? Would you take him with the 3rd pick in the draft because of it?

"I remember having to explain this for Bargnani last year when people were comparing him to those two."

Bargnani had a decent rookie year, but nothing to go crazy about. 3RPG for a 7 footer?

Plus, you have worry about the lack of toughness. Just look at Dirk.

[Plainview1981]

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Didn't we hear this kind of stuff about Darko? The Hawks don't have room for more unprovens.

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Darko wasn't nearly as athletic or as proven.

Darko like Tskitishvilli was mostly taken off of potential

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What has YI done?

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For one he's actually played ball.

Skita didn't even play ball.

Darko barely played ball overseas and the most points he average in his limited time was 9 PPG.

Meanwhile Yi is an MVP of a tea that was going for 3 titles.

Yi is a guy who played vs TEAM USA garnering compliments.

He is a whole lot more proven and it's not even close

I remember having to explain this for Bargnani last year when people were comparing him to those two.

Except Yi even has more playing time than Bargnani.

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Is the league he plays in any good? If it's some piece of crap league it doesn't matter if he's played on a team going for 3 titles. Besides, playing on a team going for 3 titles doesn't make you great. Steve Kerr and Scott Williams were not great players and thy have 2 or 3 rings.

"Yi is a guy who played vs TEAM USA garnering compliments."

Chris Arroyo was killing the USA Team correct? Would you take him with the 3rd pick in the draft because of it?

"I remember having to explain this for Bargnani last year when people were comparing him to those two."

Bargnani had a decent rookie year, but nothing to go crazy about. 3RPG for a 7 footer?

Plus, you have worry about the lack of toughness. Just look at Dirk.

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The Hawks alredy have enough "hope he develops" type of players. It gets really damn old.

MW-Will he ever live up to being picked 2?

Will Shellhead develop into a decent player?

Will Smoove ever improve on his weaknesses?

Can Soloman Jones be a good player for us?

Aren't there ENOUGH question marks? It's the same junk year after year. This dude is probably not going to be any different. If he fails, you have three top 5 picks on the team that has turned out to be failures.

Marvin Williams has proven he doesn't have any skills other than shooting open jumpshots and Shellhead clearly doesn't have the talent to live up to being picked 5th.

Lastly, it means the Hawks are going to suck alot longer.

[Plainview1981]

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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.

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 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.

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.

Chad Ford covers the NBA for ESPN Insider.

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It reads like hype. I don't know why they have to tell us his obvious poor taste in music or how he dresses like it actually means something. He's frm China but wants to be from the hood... Let's sign him up!

[Guest Walter]

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In one post you state the only way to know for sure is to evaluate in person; then in this post you claim Yi and Wright have "significantly more talent". Hmm, did you go with your daddy Chad on his trip to "evaluate" Yi?

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I've watched all the videos of Yi and being a North Carolinian I can't help but watch Wright. Similarly, I've seen alot of Conley and Crittenton. Only parts of two games with Law. I've seen more than enough to know where the Pgs are in relation to each other and Brandan Wright. I am thuroughly impressed with the videos of Yi, even moreso than the videos of Bargnanni last year. He looks like a very nice pick for Toronto.

Question me all you want but I've called it right FOR US. The only two players I think I called it wrong were Paul and Bogut as I wanted Bogut more than Paul. Frankly, I might still want Bogut more given the difficulty of getting a center. I also still wanted Paul over MW, so my criticism of Paul was only in the context of a comparison to Bogut and Deron. Whatever amount of viewing I've had with all these past prospects, I have gotten it right. I do think that should be respected. I don't proclaim to be reading tea leaves or have a crystal ball. I realize Yi has something to prove just like all other players save maybe Oden and Durant do also. I just believe that Yi will manage to do so based upon the (yes, limited) footage I've seen.

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You are pretty much slamming Conley supporters for the same thing you are doing all over this board. This is not ironic Walter; it is hypocrisy in its truest form.

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I don't understand. I am slamming Conley supporters for not accurately assessing the breadth of our team needs (Pg, center, AND T-A-L-E-N-T) not getting value out of our picks. 1) Conley at 3 is too high, 2) what do we get at 11 if we get Conley at 3? The case for Conley stops at Conley at 3. There is no argument made for it somehow getting the best value out of our 11th pick or even beginning to address our other needs?

Me personally. I'd rather have Bynum/Critt or Yi/Critt and likely Wright/Critt than Conley/Hawes or Conley/Marc Gasol (or whatever center remains available). I realize that getting Yi means we have to make other moves but we've needed to for some time now.

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Honestly, you should ask Chad Ford to adopt you. Like father, like son; you know what I mean.....

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Hmm? What does this comment from you say about your father?