Villanueva Blogs For NBA.com

Forward Charlie Villanueva blogged for NBA.com on October 10. It's worth reading in its entirety. I've quoted one section where he spoke very kindly about Yi Jianlian, in addition to a lineup he recommends the Bucks use this year.

"I like Yi a lot. He is a good ball handler who has no problem taking opposing defenders off the dribble. He is a great finisher around the basket. He has a great understanding of the game and good court awareness. Rarely does Yi force the play. Instead he lets the game come to him naturally. Yi's game reminds me a bit of myself. I think Yi and I play similarly. We both have good offensive outside and inside games. And we both can create mismatch problems on any given night. It's going to be a great year for us. Coach K (Larry Krystkowiak) has a lot of good options on the frontcourt. The addition of Desmond Mason gives our frontcourt immediate hard defense. Mason is an awesome athlete. He can not only dunk it on you, but his jumpshot has improved as well. You may also possibly see all bigs on the frontcourt, having me at the 3-spot, Yi at the 4 and Bogut at the 5. That's a nice big lineup. I played the Small Forward position the majority of the time while I was with the Toronto Raptors. I love playing both the Small & Power Forward positions."

There are certainly times when that big lineup could work, and of course many other times when it wouldn't. It's definitely worth trying in some situations, but with Bobby Simmons and Desmond Mason in town, the best spot for Villanueva is at power forward, an argument which I'll elaborate on soon.