The Portland Trail Blazers have a confusing backcourt logjam that needs to eventually be sorted out. It's far easier to understand the plan behind their frontcourt and why they feel the need to roster four centers. While their two-timeline approach has come at the expense of young guards like Scoot Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe, it's gone perfectly to plan in the frontcourt.
The Deandre Ayton buyout not only got him to forfeit $10 million of his salary but also cleared the path for Donovan Clingan to have a starting role. His increased role and continued improvement in areas like conditioning and three-point shooting perfectly aligned, making him the clear-cut starting center of the future.
That hasn't exactly made it easier to understand why Portland took on the Yang Hanen gamble the summer after Clingan's All-Rookie Second Team appearance, especially since neither Hansen nor Clingan can effectively play the power forward position.
Diminished returns remain an issue, but Portland remains committed to the long-term investment of Hansen despite a shaky rookie campaign. They were bullish enough to reach for him in the first round, and that long-term stance isn't going to change when he's still 21 years old.
Blazers still don't want to throw Yang Hansen into the fire
But in the meantime, Portland needed to balance the reality of rostering a multi-year project while looking to build off the first playoff appearance of its rebuild. Portland played Hansen 43 games last season, which was likely still more than what they would've preferred. Tiago Splitter said "we have to be careful there" as far as limiting Hansen's minutes, adding that he was reluctant to throw him into the fire in a situation he's clearly not ready for.
Hansen's recent Summer League performance suggests he could eventually figure things out at the NBA level. He's playing relatively quicker and even taking bigs off the dribble out on the perimeter. Most importantly, he's playing with the confidence that comes from knowing he can excel at the Summer League level.
He'll need to carry that same mindset over to games with the Blazers, though one on-court issue that remains unresolved is the scalability of his role.
When Portland took that first-round gamble on Hansen, the long-term belief was in a tantalizing ceiling as a potential offensive hub. That obviously remains far from reality, but the Blazers are struggling with how Hansen's strengths outweigh his weaknesses in a role where he isn't the focal point of the offense. It's hard to utilize that elite court vision without the ball, but the Blazers shouldn't feel comfortable with Hansen having the ball, for instance.
Donovan Clingan remains the biggest hurdle for Yang Hansen's ceiling
Hansen's development and offensive fit on this roster will remain an interesting storyline to monitor throughout the course of a career that will be highly followed worldwide. The continued development is promising, and Portland is clearly committed to Hansen, though he will have to overcome the crowded frontcourt and being stuck behind Clingan in particular.
Clingan may be the biggest hurdle of them all. The other crowded frontcourt is by design to buy Hansen time until he's ready to make that contribution on a playoff-caliber team.
They extended Williams to a three-year $44 million deal in which only the first year is fully guaranteed, mitigating injury concerns. They also brought in Micah Potter, Branden Carlson, and Jeremy Sochan as potential added depth for this roster.
Williams has a case to make as one of the best backup bigs in the league, but you always need more depth behind him to account for another unfortunate injury. Portland couldn't rely on Hansen in that setting, especially in the playoffs, and decided to bring in more insurance.
That could be a win-win scenario for both Hansen and the Blazers. They likely played Hansen more than they anticipated, and now he could even spend more time developing with the Rip City Remix.
Whatever Portland deems the best way to continue to bring along its multi-year project, they at least bought themselves one more season with formidable depth to be able to take on that project.
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