The Vision for Yang Hansen with the Portland Trailblazers

In a move that shocked the basketball world, the Portland Trailblazers acquired the draft rights to Hansen Yang with pick No. 16 at the 2025 NBA Draft. The consensus was that Hansen's potential is through the roof, but many also wondered if Portland had reached too high on taking him.

Either way, he's become a popular character throughout Summer League festivities, both for his on and off-court habits. In his four Las Vegas matchups, Hansen looked talented and showed promising flashes on both sides of the ball, even looking the part of pre-draft comparisons that labeled him as Jokic-.

After recent moves that may indicate Portland is ready to compete sooner rather than later, here's where Hansen may stand as a piece for the Trailblazers.

2025-26 role

The Trailblazers had an impressive run when healthy last season, going 10-1 through an 11 game span in January-February, with half of those victories coming against playoff teams. With another season of internal development from players like Scoot Henderson and Donovan Clingan, the team could be ready to compete. The additions of Jrue Holiday and Damian Lillard further indicate that Portland is ready to make a playoff push – even if the ladder isn't playing next season.

The Trailblazers frontcourt is talented, with centers Robert Williams and Clingan, along with forwards Deni Avdija, Toumani Camara and Jerami Grant all good enough to command regular rotational minutes. It's unlikely that Hansen plays a major role early on, but he could play spot minutes when injuries arise, or in late-game scenarios.

If Hansen were to see an extended run in the rotation, it'd likely be as the backup center in a limited role. Either way, he'll spend plenty of time with the team's G League affiliate, the Rip City Remix, honing his skills until he's ready to be unleashed upon the NBA landscape.

The Future

Hansen's unique offensive IQ and passing vision would provide a unique fold as a piece of Portland's long-term core. If Henderson pans out as the point guard of the future, he's much more of a tempo-pusher and pick-and-roll lead guard. With Avdija running a complementary point-forward role, Hansen could pan out as the primary facilitating big, using height to his advantage.

In Summer League, he looked comfortable scanning the court from both the high post and the perimeter, hitting teammates in stride on cuts to the basket. He was also willing to step out and take shots from beyond the arc, hitting one of his three 3-point attempts per game.

Having Hansen as a hub to center an athletic offensive unit around would do wonders for cutters like Avdija, Camara and Shaedon Sharpe, and maybe even help Henderson become more effective away from the ball.

Some may ask if he'd be a direct conflict with 2024's No. 7 overall pick, Donovan Clingan, but there's a world where if both are good enough, the pair can start alongside each other as a skyscraper duo. Both have the defensive size and rim-protection capabilities to hold down the fort in the paint, as Hansen can serve as the skilled playmaker while Clingan does the dirty work down low.

Hansen's aforementioned potential to become a perimeter-oriented playmaker make him a viable option to flex to the power forward spot, especially as the league shifts towards more double-big lineups.

Whether it's with or without Clingan alongside him, the vision for Hansen is as a core piece to the Trailblazers offense, and there's full confidence in him reaching it.