Empty the Bench

It started with Yao Ming, who after taking his lumps the first few seasons of his NBA career has developed into one of the top two or three centers in the game. In a little over a week, 6-11 countryman Yi Jianlian will be a likely lottery pick in the June 28 draft. Though it’s anyone’s guess as to whether or not Jianlian eventually makes a comparable impact to what Ming has done for the Houston Rockets and Association in general, early reports are that Jianlian can run the floor, has athleticism to spare, and has yet to scratch the surface of his considerable talents. He’ll probably need a season or two to get up to NBA speed with his peers–especially physically–but we feel Jianlian will make whichever team drafts him very happy in time.

Of course, those aren’t the only two Chinese players to come overseas and play in the NBA–Wang Zhizhi was the first, but never accomplished much. 7-8 guard (just kidding) Sun Mingming has hopes of latching on in the big leagues, but for now he’s stuck in the International Basketball League with the Grand Rapids Flight, which should tell you a little something about his NBA prospects. Now, another Chinese player with NBA ambitions is starting to make a name for himself with scouts across the league, and again, it has a lot to do with his size: 21-year-old Sun Yue is listed as a 6-9 point guard. But though he has agreed to practice with the Washington Wizards, the Chinese national team coach, Jonas Kazlauskas, feels that Yue is nowhere close to being ready for the NBA:

“If you ask me which skill Sun needs to improve in terms of playing in the NBA, I’d tell you he needs an all-around improvement, because he is not strong enough to join the games there,” Kazlauskas said.

Kazlauskas is unhappy that Sun accepted an invitation from the Washington Wizards to practice with them ahead of this month’s NBA draft instead of working out with his national team ahead of the Asian Championships. And he went one step further last week by saying Sun was hurting his chances of playing at the Olympics while skipping national team duty this month. Kazlauskas also snuck in a final word.

“If you don’t want to accept the truth, how can you help the team to prepare for the Beijing Olympics?” he said. “This is not defamation, this is the reality that Chinese players have to face.”

Check out the rest of the article for more on Yue, who is compared to versatile Phoenix Suns combo guard/forward Boris Diaw in terms of size and playmaking ability. Now, we’ve never seen any game footage of Yue, we haven’t heard his name before today, and though this kid will very likely end up in the NBA within the next few seasons, we’ll trust his coach’s assessment that he still has a long ways to go (though some of his comments are obviously sour grapes at Yue skipping out on some national team duties).

But during these next few developmental years for Yue, is he better off playing against inferior competition in China, or against other young, upcoming players fighting to make the NBA? Coming over here and sitting on the end of the bench for three seasons, like so many Europeans do, doesn’t seem like the best solution. Sure, practicing against the best players in the world has its advantages, but the benefits of playing in real game situations cannot be overstated.

To us, this again brings to the forefront David Stern’s lack of planning and execution when it comes to the NBA Development League. More money should be put into it, more teams should then be founded, and it should work more like Major League Baseball’s minor-league system, which, you know, works. NBA franchises should not have to “share” a D-League team with other franchises–the legitimate question going through the minds of many NBA front offices is “why should I send two of my best prospects down there when I have no control over whether they play or not?”

The current relationship between the NBA and the D-League is flawed at best, and there’s so much potential for it to become symbiotic almost instantly, to establish a bigger NBA fanbase in D-League cities, and to truly become a proving ground for young, exciting talent. Yue should be honing his game in the D-League–now–but unfortunately it’s still mostly in shambles. That means that until Stern gets his D-League act together, Yue is better off staying in China and playing against a lot of guys whose only hopes of seeing NBA players up close is at Beijing during an autograph session.