Sep 29, 2025; Portland, OR, USA: Portland Trail Blazers center Yang Hansen (16) during media day at the Moda Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Wayrynen-Imagn Images Troy Wayrynen-Imagn Images

Yang Hansen Has Lineup Request for Blazers Coach Chauncey Billups

Originally posted on Portland Trail Blazers on SI
By Alex Kirschenbaum | Last updated Oct 6, 2025 3:00 PM ET

Portland Trail Blazers rookie center Yang Hansen, the No. 16 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft out of the CBA's Qingdao Eagles, is still adjusting to his first NBA training camp.

The 7-foot-1 big man is impressed by Portland's focus on basketball minutiae, according to Sean Highkin of The Rose Garden Report.

"Everything here is more focused on details," Yang noted via his translator, Chris Liu, during a presser Thursday.

"He's doing great," Portland's priciest player, power forward Jerami Grant, said of Hansen. "He's figuring it out really fast. He's figuring out a lot of the plays, a lot of the movements. He doesn't speak English, so it's a little difficult, but he's intuitive. He's smart. He picks it up really fast."

As far as what role he'll play in Portland's center rotation, Hansen is already lobbying for maximum time alongside presumed starter Donovan Clingan. Was this comment said in jest? Perhaps.

Yang Hansen (through his translator) on building chemistry with Donovan Clingan: "Maybe you can tell Chauncey—go twin towers, two centers on the court."
— Sean Highkin (@highkin) October 2, 2025

"Maybe you can tell Chauncey [Billups]," Hansen said, grinning. "Go twin towers, two centers on the court."

For his part, the Hall of Fame point guard-turned-Portland head coach appreciates how well Hansen is already picking things up on one end of the hardwood.

'Where I Thought He Would Be'

"He's about where I thought he would be," Billups said. "He's got such great feel that offensively, he'll be there. Defensively, he's a little behind. In fairness to him, he didn't have to fight and scrap and claw for rebounds, he's just so good and so big over there [in China] that they'd come right to him."

Hansen still has to adjust to the pace of the NBA game, Billups posited.

"The NBA is totally different," Billups asserted. "The speed of the game is totally different. But he's right where a rook should be at. I'm happy with where he's at."

Across seven Summer League bouts, the 20-year-old big man averaged 9.9 points on 45.1 percent shooting from the floor and 82.6 percent field goal shooting, plus 5.0 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.6 blocks per.

In his 53 games with Qingdao during the 2024-25 season, Hansen averaged an encouraging 16.2 points on 59.5 percent shooting from the floor and 67.7 percent shooting from the charity stripe, while grabbing 10.0 boards, passing for 2.8 dishes and blocking 2.7 shots.