Yi Jianlian needs to take a step back

It will just require a change in mindset and some additional practice on taking threes rather than long twos.

Won’t it take different coaching schemes? Those plays are designed for Lewis to be where he is. If you just drift around the 3pt line on your own then you’re OPech.

He should also take a half step back on DEFENSE.

He’s long enough to still contest shots playing another half step off his man – but it would deter at least some of the times his man just drives around him…..

but no way can you assume he would make those 3s at the same clip as the 16-23 footers. Maybe at his career 3 point average of .342. But no way can you project 44, 35 and 37%.

We can dream though.

Although it’s easy to speculate and say things like “if only he could do this, he would be efficient,” it’s extremely unlikely for a player who’s been consistently below average to suddenly improve.

I’d written on the same topic elsewhere, but noted that Flip’s teams tend to rank among the league leaders in ‘long two’ attempts. Two-guards and power forwards especially.

It’s a feature of the offense, picture KG setting picks or ‘posting’ at the free throw line, or McDyess sinking wide open J’s from about the same distance offset. Flip knows that teams are willing to give up jumpers from no-man’s land, due to the generally lower percentage, no one is gameplanning to stop it much. Flip designs an offense to take what the defense will give you, and a wideopen midrange shot becomes a high percentage shot.

Secondary benefit: Flip prefers to have room under the basket for the offguard and swing forward to run baseline crossing patterns past double screens or pin screens. He often keeps a skill-position Big at the pivot position above the free throw line, able to step up to set an outside pick or to make the relay pass to the cutter off the baseline curl, or if left wide open to drive the lane or sink the shot.

Both Yi and Hilton prefer to play a face-up game. They both figure to feature as Back-ups to Dray, or replacements if he needs a little more time to recover.

I suspect their eFG% will increase somewhat even if they don’t bunny hop backwards to 3pt range. They are a good (-ish) fit for what Flip already runs, without forcing them to learn skills that may be beyond their confidence, if not ability. Sheed might take that three, but I doubt we’ll see Yi dropping a heavy volume barrage from howitzer range.

Still, if he has the open shot at long two, he’s not gonna be shouted at for taking it, he may develop confidence and improve his shooting numbers anyway.

And I would have to disagree on the “consistently mediocre” part as well. I think he is a consistently inconsistent player. He rarely finishes the game near his average. One day he’d score 3 points on 12/16 shooting and the very next three games he’d go onto score 7, 8, 11 respectively. On certain nights he’d grab 10, 19, 10 rebounds, and the next streak is 7, 2, 5, 5 and so on… Another reason why for him its never about consistency is that he’s never healthy. He has yet to play a full season, heck a 70 game season. I think yi is kind of like J R Smith in that sense because you know that he’s capable of getting a 20 10 any give night but you rarely see him do it (i used JR smith as an example becaus you know hes capable of scoring 30 points a night but at the same time its rare to see). For Yi, getting smarter would be key i guess.