Player to Watch: Yi Jianlian

FanHouse previews a player to watch from each NBA team in advance of the 2009-10 season.

This is Yi Jianlian. He plays basketball for the New Jersey Nets. He was once a highly desired commodity in the NBA -- so desired that Yi's threat to abstain from joining the NBA when an undesirable team draft resulted in several Important Men, including a United States Senator, traveling to China to negotiate Yi's departure to Milwaukee.

After one year and a Bucks regime change, Yi was traded for a well-respected player, Richard Jefferson. Along with giving up the quite-good Jefferson, the Nets also agreed to take on the onerous contract of Bobby Simmons. (There was also some future cap relief for New Jersey, but suffice it to say Yi was a big deal in this trade.)

Given all the attention, you'd think Yi Jianlian is a great basketball player by NBA standards. But he is not. Yi is a pretty substandard NBA player. The Nets desperately need that to change.

Of all 2007-08 rookies who played at least 400 minutes in 2008-09, Yi rates out as below average in almost all production and efficiency ratings. The kingpin of single-number production stats -- John Hollinger's PER -- rates Yi as the 26th best Class of 2007 product ... out of 34 players. In per-minute scoring, Yi rates 18th of 34, despite his false billing as the Chinese Dirk Nowitzki. Only in rebounding (where Yi rates 7th among the class, of which there are 17 players who primarily man the center, power forward or small forward positions) and shot blocking (9th, or just below average considering the forwards and centers only) does Yi beat the class average. I did not list steals or assists in the graphic, as Yi is obviously low in the rankings.

But Yi's terrible shooting efficiency is what truly stands out. Among the Class of 2007 products who played 400 minutes last season, only Adam Morrison was less efficient with the shot. Adam! Morrison!

Why has Yi been so inefficient? He is utterly devoted to the jump shot -- 75 percent of his FGAs came on jumpers last season, says 82games.com -- and utterly terrible at converting jump shots. And as bad as his jump-shooting percentages are, his conversion rate near the rim is even worse -- the data reports Yi's inside FG% as an astounding 36.3 percent. (By comparison, Yi's much shorter teammate Devin Harris converted at a 54.7 percent rate near the rim. Even Keyon Dooling was at 54.1 percent.)

Problematically, Yi is becoming a bigger part of the Nets attack, for several reasons. First, as mentioned, Yi is seen as important, as valuable, as vital. Highly regarded prospects do not get squelched on the court (unless you're in Chicago, I suppose). New Jersey put out a lot of resources for Yi, and Yi's success (however unlikely) could be major marketing boon in the New York market and overseas. (I mean, Yao got Shane Battier a shoe deal in China.) But also, the Nets traded Vince Carter for players (namely Courtney Lee) who will not replicate his offensive impact, and drafted a player in Terrence Williams who could be an elite defensive role player ... but surely not a possession soaker.

Harris and Brook Lopez can only shoot so much, and with Lee and Williams slated for the staring lineup, Yi is going to be forced to take on a big ol' chunk of offense. And unless Yi's notable offseason regimen (he bulked up) turns massive, immediate dividends, Yi's big ol' chunk of offense is going to be a drag on the Nets. Another season of the status quo might place Yi's NBA career in danger -- or, if nothing else, he'll become the type of international player that hangs onto the edge of the league while flirting with Europe, or in Yi's case perhaps the Chinese Basketball Association.

Making things worse is that unlike most third-year players, Yi is in all likelihood already 25 years old. His handlers billed the 7-footer as a 19-year-old prodigy in the run-up to the 2007 draft. Since his entrance to the NBA, it has been pretty acceptable to assume that the rumors (and potential proof) that Yi was born in 1984, not 1987, are true. Among notable 2007-08 rookies, only Al Thornton and Luis Scola were older. Meanwhile, players picked after Yi -- like Spencer Hawes, Julian Wright, Thaddeus Young -- are far younger, from 21 to 23. Just another stone on the wrong side of the "Yi was a bad choice" scale.