USA coach gives less than ringing endorsement of Yi

I was just listening to "The World's Greatest Talk Show" starring Steve "The Homer" True on ESPN Radio 1510 in Milwaukee. One of his guests was DePaul coach Jerry Wainwright. Wainwright also coaches the USA Under 19 basketball team, and in that capacity he faced off against the Chinese National team. Homer had him on to give his assessment of Bucks draft choice Yi Jianlian. Let's just say it wasn't glowing.

Wainwright was very circumspect in his evaluation (he really seemed reticent to out-and-out bash Yi) but his words conveyed his feelings pretty well. He doesn't think much of Yi as an NBA prospect.

While he was impressed by Yi's shooting touch (he kept saying "the kids got a nice stroke") he clearly wasn't impressed with much else. He doesn't think Yi is physically ready for the NBA game, and he thinks his fundamental skills have a long way to go. He also said that Yi was a "nice prospect" if he was 19, but underdeveloped if he's 22. At one point the otherwise diplomatic Wainwright even let slip this line "I'm not sure what they see in him... they must see something." Ouch. Maybe Mion was right.