The Portland Trail Blazers were heavy favorites on the road against a rebuilding Washington Wizards team, especially with Deni Avdija back in the lineup. They weren't able to help Avdija get revenge against his former team, as they fell 115-111. One silver lining was the play of Blazers rookie Yang Hansen, who just had the best game so far in his promising young career.
Hansen was a team high +11, which is even more impressive considering it was in limited action of 12 minutes. He looked much more comfortable and confident, and it was the first time throughout the entire course of a game where we genuinely felt like the Blazers were a better team with him on the court.
Yang Hansen just played his best game of the season
In fact, we wanted head coach Tiago Splitter to play him even more!
Donovan Clingan finished with a team worse -17. Wizards big man Alex Sarr was giving him matchup problems all game with his rare combination of size, athleticism, and floor spacing. Hansen was relatively more effective in limited action, and it would've been nice to see if he could continue that momentum for a more extended stretch, especially with the Blazers needing a new look.
This finally looked like the Hansen that the Blazers fans saw during Summer League. He was making brilliant reads at the top of the key, finding Blazers guards for backdoor cuts on multiple occasions (one of which resulted in a blown layup by Caleb Love).
A stat line of 6 points, 5 rebounds, and 1 assist isn't eye-popping numbers by any means, but that +11 is incredibly promising. Hansen's elite basketball IQ has always been his biggest strength, and we are finally seeing that being applied in terms of his impact on winning with plays that go beyond the box score.
Portland's rookie still has a steep learning curve at 20 years old as he continues to adjust to the NBA, but this game provided at least a glimpse of what his role could look like in the coming years. In the scheme of things, the progress Hansen showed tonight is going to be far more important than whether or not the Blazers have won 23 or 24 games so far this season. Every game counts in the competitive Western Conference standings, but their rebuilding ceiling is closely tied to this Hansen draft gamble.
Early on, it appeared that the risk far outweighed the reward. But games like tonight are precisely why it's too early to fully judge whether or not this was the right decision by Portland's front office.
The development won't be linear by any means, but as long as Hansen continues to show occasional flashes with games like this, Portland's bold draft decision might work out after all.