The Portland Trail Blazers and their Western Conference foes, the Houston Rockets, have a lot of overlap in terms of their rebuilding approaches.
That's promising for the Blazers' outlook, as the Rockets suddenly have the second-best odds to come out of the loaded Western Conference next season following their calculated trade for aging superstar Kevin Durant.
Blazers follow Rockets blueprint with Jrue Holiday trade
The Blazers recently made a surprising win-now trade, swapping the expiring Anfernee Simons for an overpaid and declining Jrue Holiday.
But at one point, the Rockets were coming off a 22-60 record when they made the unconventional decisions to sign VanVleet to a three-year, $128.5 million deal (with a player option) and Dillon Brooks in a four-year, $80 million deal sign-and-trade.
That following year, Houston took significant strides thanks to their external additions as well as the development of their young core, finishing with a 41-41 record.
Holiday can serve as Portland's version of VanVleet to help them return to the playoffs in the near future. The bigger question that will determine their ceiling, however, is: Did the Blazers just land their version of Alperen Sengun by stealing Yang Hansen in the draft?
Can Yang Hansen become Portland's Alperen Sengun?
Hansen's been compared to "Chinese Jokic," Sengun, and Nikola Vučevic. This currently sounds farfetched, and odds are he doesn't become that level player. But there's certainly a chance, and the Blazers wouldn't have put so much risk into the pick if they didn't believe in that as an outcome.
Even if the Blazers can simply replicate Sengun with Hansen in terms of playstyle, it would provide a major boost to their offense. Portland and Houston both rank in the bottom ten in three-point shooting and rely heavily on defense, youth, and athleticism.
Obviously, the second-seeded Rockets have experienced more success with that formula, and it's largely because Sengun is the missing piece. The Blazers' offense was often too stagnant last season and would benefit from a playmaking big man to serve as a hub in order to utilize the athleticism of their guards.
The Blazers are finally entering the next phase in their rebuild, where they go from acquiring assets and stockpiling as much talent as possible to now making moves based on how the pieces fit one another. If Hansen pans out, he's a perfect fit.
The Rockets laid the blueprint out by adding veterans to complement their young core to take that jump, only to then take a backseat to their emerging young core. Portland has done a great job of following that up until this point.
Hopefully, the Holiday addition and continued internal development will result in a playoff appearance next season. Then, the Blazers can flip the page and start talking about adding a Durant-like superstar.