Agent suggests New Jersey Nets are to blame for Yi Jianlian's stalled development (original) (raw)

Yi Jianlian's progression nosedived after he suffered a pinkie injury in January.

Essentially, Yi Jianlian's season was a three-stage rocket.

The liftoff was very promising, if not glorious. The separation was a spectacular explosion. And the plunge to earth was a disaster.

By now, the consensus is that the failure to remain in the Nets' starting lineup and rotation was entirely his own, even if the team itself rejects that as too simplistic. His agent, however, has grown very edgy since the Chinese power forward has become everyone's favorite pin cushion on the blogs and message boards.

Dan Fegan, a superb negotiator who prepares for every discussion about a client like he's on his way to a rumble, wants numbers to explain it all. And if that sounds counterintuitive -- why go there with a stagnated 21-year-old, who averages 8.8 points and 5.4 rebounds in 23 minutes? -- the agent has his reasons.

"In the 10 games Yi has played 30-plus minutes and taken 10 or more shots, he has averaged 17.5 points, shot 47 percent, 40 from 3-point line, and 7.3 rebounds," Fegan said. "You can't just fake that. Those are strong numbers for any player -- let alone a second-year player."

You can see where this is going.

Minutes, shots.

The Nets know all this. After working with the gifted power forward for six months, they have gone through stages of denial and stupefaction, and at this point they're passing through disgust on their way to numbness. And if it's numbers Fegan wants to use, these are simple enough: For a kid who has a reputation as a world-class shooter, he's still south of the Chris Dudley Line (.389) after 59 games this season.

Fegan, unrelenting and prepared for such a debate, insists that this is not the issue. The Nets' season, he points out, was supposed to be about developing players such as Yi. And when they were developing him -- truly committed to developing him, which he insists hasn't been the case since Yi broke his finger on Jan. 9 -- they were a far better team.

"They Nets were 18-18 before Yi got injured. Then they were 6-10 when he was out. And they've been a dismal 14-29 since he broke his finger and eventually taken out of the rotation," Fegan said before the Nets beat the Magic on Saturday, lifting their record to 15-29 since Yi's injury.

"To me, the question isn't Yi's performance or upside. The real question is this: How can a team go from 18-18 and sixth place in the Eastern Conference before he gets hurt to seven games out of playoff contention now?

"It begs the question," Fegan concluded. "What happened, and who's accountable?"

There was no addendum to this remark, such as "heads must roll." Fegan is particularly close to Nets GM Kiki Vandeweghe -- Fegan clients Jarvis Hayes, Eduardo Najera, Mo Ager, and coaching associate Howard Eisley didn't land in New Jersey by accident -- so he can barely get a word out on the Yi issue without censoring himself, lest he burn a friend.

Vandeweghe's role in Yi's development increased while the latter rehabbed his broken pinkie for 37 days. The GM often worked him out after games at the Nets' practice facility. He left All-Star Weekend in Phoenix to return to New Jersey to work him out even more. He is fully invested in the player's success -- as is the coaching staff -- but something failed to click.

Since returning from his injury on Feb. 17, Yi has been out of sync, out of sorts, out of place. He lost his shot, then his confidence, then the organization's enthusiasm for his development. Fegan would be quick to point out that he hasn't had a single one of those 30-minute, 10-shot games since then.

Lawrence Frank, who was preoccupied with trying to get a team in the playoffs, believes he gave Yi every opportunity he deserved -- and he communicated that sentiment to Fegan himself.

"Yi has all the characteristics it takes to be a good player," the coach said. "But you have to be patient. He's only 21. As he continues to get stronger and learns the NBA game, he'll continue to improve."

Vandeweghe would rather keep it simple.

"You had a guy who looked like he was turning the corner, looked like he was playing pretty well," the GM said. "Then he broke a finger on his shooting hand. He seemed to be getting it before then -- consistently in the high teens, seven to nine rebounds per game.

"But the injury to his shooting hand really turned him off. I've had a hand injury, but it takes a while to get back in there and get confidence. I'm not giving excuses, but that's my take."

Yi himself has a mature take on it: "I'm still too much up and down," he said, when asked to analyze his second pro season. "I thought I was doing well until I was injured. I had some good games. Then I got injured and lost some minutes. That's normal in the NBA."

It's not normal to Fegan, however, who suggests that if you want to gauge what earnest opportunity means to a young, foreign, perimeter-oriented player, "just look at Toronto" -- where Andrea Bargnani went from bust to boom after the Italian forward was given a different role under a new coach.

It's not a normal live-through-the-growing-pains issue that most teams experience, either. Some people in the Nets organization thinks it hangs over everything.

There are members of management who staked their reputation on the trade that cost the team Richard Jefferson, the No. 9 scorer in the league last year. There are coaches who were responsible for Yi's development and have two months of regression to show for it. There are people on the business side who are eager to make him a marquee player. And inflaming this cauldron is the influence of a powerful agent who is not happy with how his client was used.

But when you inquire whether he asked Nets president Rod Thorn to try to trade Yi, Fegan does not comment.

"I've expressed my concerns," Fegan said, "particularly about the timing of Yi's move to the bench. And I ask again: What happened, and who is accountable?"

Fegan would not articulate the subtext, but it's not exactly Chinese algebra: The coach screwed up, he is saying. And the organization allowed it to happen.

Thorn? He's staying out of the fray, and isn't in the habit of publicly ascribing blame. All he knows is that he'd like to see different results.

"Obviously, next year is a key year for Yi in his maturation and development," he said. "A very important year -- for him, and the team."