Event With the 16th pick, Blazers have selected Hansen Yang

...and the fact that, there is zero incentive to play him more minutes in SL -- he's shown enough!!

 

It’s good he’s getting shutdown. Dudes gotta eat, sleep, and play video games, LOL.
On to the next thing, training camp and preseason hype.

 

Was that the difference in the lotto balls? I think i recall someone saying we were like right next to them as far as odds or something?

 

The Spurs got the second pick. Blazers ended up with a 36-46 record. Spurs ended up 34-48. If they lose that the teams are tied at the end of the season. The needless win vs the Lakers was obviously a bad move as well.
The other side of that argument is the Spurs beat the Warriors after that because the warriors were resting players and they also beat the Raptors while the Blazers were busy beating the Lakers.
I guess my point is if you have no reason to win and the Draft has players available like this one did why mess around and win needless games. It's not like it was hurting attendance at that point.

 

I seem to recall months of g league scrubs starting. Remember CJ Elleby? He started 28 games for us. We closed games with some John Paul Jones 7' two way guy playing PG and have benched Sharpe over multiple seasons.

I was all for rebuilding - but by dumping vets and playing youth. Not some g league scrub farce.

Lack of tanking is just not a Blazers problem the last half decade.

 

We don't have enough talent on the roster to realistically build a championship team.

That means we didn't draft enough talent yet. Thereby, we didn't tank enough.

I hope the front office can hit some home runs to get us there, but that's almost certainly not going to happen.

 

Yang has been pretty impressive.

Blazers have nice role players and good pile of assets to trade for a star if they flip to that strategy. Or just swing with the picks to draft a star.

Yang/Scoot/Sharpe/Deni while individually aren't likely to be an all-star probably have a real chance collectively one of the four is.

I would have preferred we didn't ever have that AytonSimonsGrant big3 era and prioritized picks/youth more. I hated the g league scrub tanking even more. But at this point it's done and the Blazers are beyond that phase of building.

97% of the league fails every year. Blazers are in a much better long term position than a lot of the league.

 

“court mapper”

 

I would have liked to see Yang play one more game, but, without that, here's my take.

I see why the Blazers love him and picked him, and, if they already knew he probably was there guy midway through the season but that they probably were going to finish around six or seven in standings at best and wouldn't have a good chance at Flagg, then winning a few more games really didn't matter, because they felt Yang was being overlooked and they could get him midway through the first round while still developing a winning culture.

I think there's less than a 50% chance, maybe less than a 33% chance he gets close to his potential. That said, his upside is as good as anyone that came out of this draft class. The comparisons with Jokic in skill and style are credible. Yang's taller, a better rim protector, he's got the potential to be in the same neighborhood as a 3-point shooter and passer. I think he's going to be a more agile player. He shows flashes of some great dribbling at his size.

I don't think he'll come close to Jokic in the mid-range or as a rebounder, even if he comes close to being what he can be. As I mentioned earlier, I'm not sure he has the killer/dawg in his personality that one needs to be elite.

That said, the gamble was worth it. Any of the other guys they'd have picked even if they were picking third or fourth would have been gambles but without the upside. Yang has all the tools. Even if he fails, I think this was a good pick. It was a worthwhile pick. It'll be fun to see what he can do and every time he does something that makes us feel he's taking that leap to the next level, even if it doesn't happen.

 

Honestly he's blown away my expectations. I expected a nice highlight here or there, some flashes. But he legit had an impact on both ends for extended stretches.

His footwork, coordination, shooting has been way better than I thought.

Has very high upside in this class and I've quickly flopped to being totally on board with the pick. At some point I might flip from optimistic to confident with him as an NBA player. Not there yet but we might see it early on his rookie season.

Kind of shows how stupid it is for us fans to try and judge prospects prior to the draft. Especially international ones.

I think we'll have some impressive stretches from him as a rookie. He might struggle a lot over his rookie year though which is fine. Very glad we drafted him. Cutting Ayton was great at the time and even better today. That Orlando unprotected picks we got is very nice too.

 

FWIW, Zach Lowe mentioned on his most recent pod that he talked to enough people to know that Yang was gonna go somewhere in the 1st round, either by someone with a pick, or a team trying to trade into the first round.

 

His Chinese team is quoted in saying he had a promise at 19 from Brooklyn.

 

Yang has one thing I never see in rookie 7 ft players very often...he has thick legs and not Chris Boucher stick legs ....a lot of 7 ft players don't have that going for their lower core development..at 20 Han Sen can really develop into a solid big man.

 

Yes, I am aware, but this is Lowe, who is not a news breaker but has real sources. When he says something like this, it's 100% true.

 

I think this is my final take after SL:

If the Pels never offered us the deal that Atlanta took, I'm fine with what we did. It was probably the best option. And there were reports that initially they were offering the pick for protections. I think Atlanta just happened to be the team that they were talking to when Dumars got desperate and removed the protections like a moron.

If we turned down the offer for the Pelicans pick, I still think it was the wrong decision. I see what they see in Yang. I think he's a very intriguing prospect, but the Pels pick could be top 5 in a VERY good draft. I guess we shall see. Overall Joe made a solid move. I just wish we could have gotten our hands on that unprotected 2026 NOP pick.

 

I mean I think you might be correct with your conclusion.

Maybe the Pelicans were trying to give a protected pick, we had that backfire in the CJ deal.

But also it's a bit of a scramble at the draft to evaluate all these decisions in a rush. It sounds like the Hawks had to have multiple people call the Pelicans and confirm it was an unprotected picks. Hawks thought it was to good to be true.

Maybe the Blazers were locked in on Yang and not interested in Pelicans pick as theyd drop below #16. Maybe the Grizz deal was a done deal or contingent on one specific outcome not happening which didn't who knows.

Maybe the Blazers thought the Pelicans were just screwing with them to try and tip their hand on their direction.

Don't think we'll ever know for certain exactly what the options were at draft night.

We will be able to judge Yang, Coward, and next year Pelican pick.

 

Exactly why I don't do it. We may get lucky and "pick" a guy right over the pros sometimes, but it's just dumb luck when that happens.

 

Yang finished summer league shooting 7-8 at the free-throw line. 87.5 %

This is an area where a lot of big men struggle. Hopefully Yang can keep it up somewhere around 80% or better.

Last season Deandre Ayton was 40-60 on free throws, 66.7 % , and Donovan Clingan was 62-104, 59.6 % .

Perhaps we'll see at times near the end of games where Billups switches between Clingan and Yang for defense / offense.

 

The Blazers are not in better talent situation than at least five or six other teams (maybe more), IMO. And we aren't a destination market.

If we trade away enough to get a star we won't have anything left around them.

 

Suns
Nets
Jazz
Pelicans
Hornets
Kings
Bulls
Raptors
6ers
Wizards

Which 5 of those teams rosters+picks would you take over the Blazers?

If you can't name 5 than your statement is false.