Yi Jianlian is having an unbelievable World Championships

I’m assuming he is the go-to guy on team China and knows that any and all offense is going to run through him. He’s not going to get half of the scoring opportunities or minutes with the Wiz. He just needs to figure out where he fits into the Wiz an capitalize.

Nice to hear he is doing well. He has been a major disappointment in the NBA so far, but he is another guy on the Wizards who might have a breakout year and turn out to be really good. Better to hear that he is doing great in the worlds, possibly building his confidence like RealBigMike pointed out, than the opposite.

Has anyone ever gone to the FIBA worlds? I wonder if it is fun – seems like a lot of interesting basketball so might be a great vacation.

I sat down to watch replays of China playing Greece and the Ivory Coast on ESPN3 over the weekend. I so wanted to have a stunning revelation about Yi’s abilities. But really? If you want to know how Yi plays against the best, look at how he played for the Nets. Because you can’t tell much when it comes to these international teams.

Having said that, here are some observations from watching Yi in FIBA competition, for whatever they’re worth:

He’s actually got a mean streak. Several times in the game against Greece, Yi dunked the ball and looked over at the Greek bench with a scowl. Apparently Greece’s coach is a former coach for the Chinese team. Was Yi mad about not having been given enough minutes years earlier? Maybe he felt betrayed? Who knows. But he was mad, and he played with real aggression. He and his teammates are also fans of the single-fist chest thump, I noticed.

He’s got decent post moves, but he doesn’t use them enough. Yi can cover a lot of distance very quickly. He’s got a spin move that is pretty nasty, that gives the illusion of covering 15-20 feet in a couple steps. But I only caught a glimmer of it.

He really is athletic – fast and quick. On one possession, he made a move to the basket – I think it was in that Ivory Coast game at about the 1:30 mark – from the top of the key, driving right down the lane through 4 defenders for a vicious two-handed dunk. It only worked because he got to the rim so quickly.

He doesn’t know how to rebound effectively. A lot of the Yi rebounds I saw were pure luck – not especially good positioning, and certainly no real boxing out. He doesn’t work for rebounds.

He’s a decent passer. He can pass the ball in traffic pretty well.

He sets a weak pick. ’Nuff said.

He’s not a real confident outside shooter – though the FIBA games may not be the best indicator of his confidence in that respect. The China team is stacked with guards who love to jack up threes. He doesn’t spend much time outside in these games.

I tend to disregard the stats for these games, but I have to admit one thing: Yi is getting these stats despite being consistently double teamed. And when he’s not double teamed, he’s doing a good job of isolating his man and often getting to the line.