The Portland Trail Blazers made the shocking choice to select Yang Hansen with the No. 16 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, and some people were confused, but they are in love with the pick. Keith Smith of Spotrac spoke with a Blazers front office executive at Summer League in Las Vegas, and he said the organization loves Yang.
“I know you didn’t like that pick. (laughed) But we love him,” a Blazers front office executive told Smith. “In today’s NBA, your big man has to be versatile and able to do a lot of stuff. We feel like Yang is going to be really good for us, and probably sooner than most expect.”
That should be enough to get Blazers fans very excited.
How did Yang Hansen look at Summer League?
Blazers fans should be fired up to hear that the team loves Yang. Based on the quote the executive gave Smith, it sounds like he should get a ton of opportunities early on, too.
Yang got his first chance to show off his skills at Summer League, and a hype train was formed. His flashy passing and incredible court awareness was on full display, and the social media world exploded with excitement. (Even non-Blazers fans.)
In four Summer League appearances (24.5 minutes per contest), Yang averaged 10.8 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 3.8 rebounds while shooting 45.7% from the field and 33.3% from beyond the three-point arc.
Overall, fans should have left Summer League feeling excited about the raw potential of Yang. However, NBA Draft expert Sam Vecenie did provide some potential concerns as well during a recent episode of his podcast, Game Theory:
“A lot of it [Yan’gs passing] wasn’t reading and reacting to plays like he’ll have to do in real NBA games,” Vecenie said. “It was, ‘These are set plays that we are running for him to get him rolling.’ I didn’t see much as a scorer, to be honest with you, that got me excited, as it refers to real NBA games. I thought that he scored semi-effectively around the rim, but still only shot 45% from the field. Did make the three threes in the Pelicans game, which was really good, but he’s just not a shooter yet, so I’m a little bit concerned.
“I really didn’t like the defense. I thought that he was completely non-physical at the rim. I thought that he really struggled to deal with any sort of bumps, to be honest. I thought that he fouled a little bit aggressively, and then on offense again, the turnovers were really rough.”
That said, the Blazers seem to be very happy with their selection. And even if the quote Smith got was before Yang’s Summer League showings went viral, the team’s confidence in him is real.
Portland loves Yang.