Yi Jianlian demands and gets a guarantee of 20 mpg before signing with Milwaukee.

Only such an assurance by Kohl eased concerns that with coach Larry Krystkowiak facing his first full season and GM Larry Harris under pressure to win now to keep his job, Yi would spend much of his rookie year on the bench...

Haitao and the Chinese officials consider it paramount that Yi develop as rapidly as possible and play for a quality team, the source said. They are well-versed in the disparate tales of, say, Toronto's Andrea Bargnani staying in the rotation despite struggling early on and former Piston Darko Milicic, who barely played as a rookie.

ESPN - Bucher: Yi assured rotation role with Bucks - NBA

Doesn't surprise me, but I have to wonder how this is going to affect future international players and free agents. If Yi can get a guarantee of minutes, why can't they? I bet Cornstein is kicking himself for not demanding guarantees of pt for Darko.

Coaches are not going to react well to this if it becomes a trend.

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Good point with your post. I want to see the guarantee on paper, or it won't hold any weight.

Only a crappy team would guarantee minutes to a rookie.

Kohl isn't known for his loyalty. You can bet that Larry K will be out on his butt if the team doesn't perform with Yi.

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Momma was queen of the mambo, Poppa was king of the congo, deep down in the jungle, I start banging my first bongo
Every monkey like to be, in my place instead of me, cause I'm the king of bongo baby, I'm the king of bongo bong
-Manu Chao

Thats the thing. Usually teams drafting that high have nothing to lose.

What a dumb idea! Minutes built into the contract. Yi could be getting his dunks blocked by the rim quite a few times this year.If his ego is a fragile as Darko's is he could lose all of his confidence.

Another question is whether Yi is good enough to get those minutes. He didn't look all that great during the summer league.

Darko learned a lot by sitting on the pine. Namely how to get pissed off at refs. He outshined even Sheed at Eurobasket by losing 10,000 euros in 5 minutes.

http://grizzlies.infopop.cc/eve/foru...312#5181018312

Translation at the bottom. Warning expletive ladden tirade

Here's YouTube recording of Darko going off. It is not in English, but he sure does look mad.

YouTube - Milicic psuje sudije

I am so happy this guy is not a Piston. Sheed would be thrown out of the NBA for saying something like that. It doesn't matter how competitive Darko is, comments like that are totally uncalled for, no matter who you are or what you are doing.

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Momma was queen of the mambo, Poppa was king of the congo, deep down in the jungle, I start banging my first bongo
Every monkey like to be, in my place instead of me, cause I'm the king of bongo baby, I'm the king of bongo bong
-Manu Chao

Wow. I wonder how bad the calls were.

I'd like to see how Donaghy would have responded to that.