Portland Trail Blazers rookie Yang Hansen has struggled to crack Tiago Splitter's rotation this season. It's been a rough transition to the NBA, as Hansen continues to adjust to the speed and physicality of the league.
The unconventional selection puzzled fans on draft night. And with the season winding down, fans still haven't gotten any clarity as to why they made the pick. Hansen has showcased flashes of upside, particularly as a potential offensive hub due to his elite court vision. But reaching that ceiling is another thing entirely.
Blazers' Yang Hansen selection remains a puzzling decision
One roadblock to that outcome is the emergence of Donovan Clingan. Hansen is confined to a specific role as a backup center, seeing as the two can't effectively share the floor, given their lack of floor spacing and the defensive limitations out on the perimeter.
To make matters worse, the Blazers could've made just about any other selection, and they would've been better off going forward.
Derik Queen has a similar offensive hub skillset but is actually doing it in New Orleans. Wings Carter, Bryant, and Cedric Coward have already justified their lottery selections as well due to their 3-and-D impact. After considering the opportunity cost of who else the Blazers could've -- and likely should've -- selected, last summer's draft could set back their entire rebuild.
It's not just that they passed on ideal additions to their young core for a backup center buried behind their prior first-round investment on the depth chart. It's also that they still seem content to simply let this logjam play out.
Blazers still view Yang Hansen as a building block
The Blazers' new ownership group has already implied that they view Hansen as a building block to keep around for the long haul. That's something Blazers insider Sean Highkin of Rose Garden Report recently touched on when he joined Cyro Asseo and Sam Yip on the HoopsHype show "Around the Beat," mentioning past comments made by the Blazers new minority owners, Andrew Cherng and Sheel Tyle.
"So you've got one minority owner saying he only invested because they had a Chinese player, and another saying he wants to make them Asia's team. I think it's pretty clear Hansen is very much a part of this organization going forward."
The Blazers are quietly becoming a global team with the number of international players on their roster, including building blocks Toumani Camara, Deni Avdija, and Shaedon Sharpe. They've planned for years to include Hansen in that mix, with assistant general managers Mike Schmitz and Sergi Oliva recently suspended for two weeks for their contact with Hansen in 2023, before he was draft-eligible.
Portland was clearly enamored enough with Hansen as a prospect to break league rules and take a gamble on the projected second-rounder with the No. 16 overall pick. A slow start in the league won't change that stance. In fact, the new ownership's arrival will only double down on that stance.
For better or worse, Hansen is here to stay in Portland. And with Clingan's dominance and the positional overlap, I'm not sure that's a good thing. They drafted the player they deemed the best available, regardless of positional fit. But now it's difficult to pivot to make that fit actually work, as both pieces appear to be here to stay.
Stockpiling assets is one thing, but you need a phase two. I don't think the Blazers have a phase two, at least when it comes to their center position.