The buzz around Portland Trail Blazers rookie Yang Hansen continues to grow. Tim Legler and Adam Mares raved about Yang on the ALL NBA Podcast on Wednesday, praising his court awareness, maturity, ability to seek out contact, footwork, and speed of play.
They first talked about the excitement surrounding Yang.
Mares:
The guy we’re going to start with because I think he’s the talk of summer league, not necessarily because he was the best player, but because he’s kind of the most interesting, at least
ADto me personally, and that is Portland’s Hansen Yang. He averaged 11.7 points, four rebounds, 3.3 assists in his three games, as well as two blocks, by the way. But you got a chance to watch him. Let’s talk about him.
Legler:
Yes. I had his very first game and let me tell you something, man. It was an event. It was an event. Even by Vegas standards, the biggest reaction that I saw in the entire time I was there, other than the first Cooper Flagg, Bronny James game, which was packed...
Legler went on to explain how impressed he was with his distribution and leadership:
This guy is, first of all, he’s an elite passer. I mean, he absolutely understands where everybody is on the floor. He’s very comfortable directing traffic, even though we were told there’s somewhat of a language barrier still with him. I saw the guy catching the ball on these trails and he immediately catches it at the top of the key as a trailer and start pointing directions and telling guys to cut and move and waving guys through and then running over. It was almost like he was coaching the team on the floor. Imagine how impressive that is. I think he’s, I believe he’s 20 years old. 20 years old, Chinese player coming over here. His first taste of what this looks like and he was clearly the leader of this team and it was not even a question the very first trip up the floor. So, that’s the first thing that jumps out. The guy’s knowledge of the game, his passing ability, and just his spatial awareness of where everybody is was unbelievably impressive.
How does Yang compare to other bigs at Summer League? Legler:
But there’s a lot of [second-year] players that were first-round picks last year or second-round picks last year and a lot of those guys are bigs. And I’m telling you, Yang did that, what we’re talking about, on a higher level than any of those guys that I saw. So, for me, to have the confidence to be able to do that, right, because you’re that sure that you know what’s going on better maybe than other people, so you’re going to point, direct, lead and they encouraged him to do it — I was just impressed by that.
And more about his distribution and playmaking from Legler:
But the first thing that’s going to jump out early in his career is his ability to playmake, pass the ball, organize, and just make guys better because he is a willing distributor. He wants you to cut hard, and he’s going to know you’re open before you do because of the way he can read what the defense is about to do on any sort of screening action. So that’s going to be immediately beneficial to the team.
Legler and Mares spoke for 15 minutes on Yang, and while there are some concerns about his defense and his ability to run up and down the court, they are full of praise for the Blazers rookie. Give it a listen, it starts at 3:45.
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