Yang Hansen made a huge cultural impact in Portland and across the NBA when the Trail Blazers selected him 16th overall in the 2025 NBA Draft. The move eclipsed Portland’s former center darling, Donovan Clingan, taken 7th in the 2024 draft. Not everyone has forgotten about the Connecticut grad, however. Jeremy Woo of ESPN listed ten promising NBA sophomores, putting Clingan fifth on his list.
After citing Clingan’s rookie stats (6.5 points, 7.9 rebounds in 19.8 minutes per game) and his defensive
promise, Woo explained the buzz surrounding the center:
The Trail Blazers seemingly cleared the way for Clingan and draftee Yang Hansen to share time at center next season — Robert Williams III is still around, but could make sense as an eventual trade candidate on his expiring contract. It will be interesting to see how those minutes ultimately get divided based on performance. Clingan is deserving of the lion’s share but also needs to improve his conditioning to handle bulk minutes. The fact that he started the final 27 games of the season is probably a fair indicator that he’s up next.
As an aside, whether the Blazers experiment with Clingan and Yang together in double-big lineups will be something to watch. On paper, that fit is clunky, but considering Portland’s apparent long-term investment in both players, there’s at least some argument for finding out what it looks like. All things considered, Clingan is due for an expanded role and could solidify himself as one of the NBA’s better interior defenders in short order.
Clingan ranked just above second-overall pick in 2024, Alex Sarr of the Washington Wizards. Reed Sheppard of the Houston Rockets topped the class.
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