To the Portland Trail Blazers fanbase, center Yang Hansen is a polarizing player. When it comes to Hansen, most people fit into one of three camps.
The first group feels he was a waste of a draft pick, having seen other available players from the 2025 draft already showing upside from their rookie season.
The second group sees a talented big man who needs 2-3 years of development both on and off the court before he can pay dividends. The intangible of being a foreign-born player coming to the United
States to be a professional athlete has to carry a massive unknown burden. Multiply that by being from a country with over a billion people, many of whom are following your every step. This group is preaching patience to give Hansen this upcoming season and next before forming a concrete opinion about him.
The third group falls somewhere in between, vacillating between wanting to be patient but not being able to ignore that Hansen’s deficiencies are glaring. Especially his lack of speed and slow reaction time on defense.
Hansen has been busy getting in some solid work this offseason. He had a much-improved stint with the Chinese National team in Window 4 of the FIBA World Cup qualifying games. He won the last game for China against Lebanon, with a go-ahead bucket with 2.2 seconds remaining. It was his best overall game in international competition with 19 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists an a block with a shooting split of 88/100/100. Over 4 games, Yang averaged 13.3 points, 7.3 rebounds, 1.5 assists, and 1.3 blocks while shooting 67% overall from the field in 19.0 minutes per game. China finished Window 4 with a 3-1 record, before play resumes in November.
More recently, this clip of Yang working on short roll, pocket pass moves was released by former NBA player, Chris Johnson, who has become a renowned trainer for elite players.
Earlier this summer, Johnson also worked with Portland’s Scoot Henderson.
With the plethora of point guards on the Blazers roster to work pick n’ roll, do you think Hansen might be able to breakthrough to see some meaningful time with any of them?
