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

As a consolation, if he doesn't become a star, he adds depth to a position that needed it. Outside of maybe a couple prospects that were never going to make it to #16, whoever we drafted wasn't going to be a starter. This team has, imo, PG, C and wings. The positional flexibility of Tou, Deni, JG, Tisse, Sharpe, even Jrue means plenty of wing depth and PG is covered with Scoot and Jrue (and any number of guys that bring the ball up and facilitate).
I don't buy that traditional centers are dinosaurs in today's game. It's only an unimportant position until you don't have one. I'm assuming DA and RW3 will be gone and nobody believes Reath is a starter on a good team. DC has conditioning and foul issues.
Yang comes along at a very good time for this team. We're not winning a ring for several years, so now is the time to add young projects to the mix.

 

It will take a couple years to see how good (or less so) that Yang will be. That process has been delayed for Sharpe by injury and failure to play defense. For Scoot, he needed to learn how to play in the NBA. This will be an extremely interesting year -- one of the most interesting years in a decade.

How will Deni handle what is added to his plate?
Will Toumani add to his O while being hell on wheels on D?
Will Clingan have his conditioning where it should be and how much can he improve on both ends?
Will Scoot and Sharpe play starters minutes and make their leap? [It's the prove it year for both players.]
Will Holiday be a Blazer and how effective will he be with Sharpe? With Scoot?
How many minutes will Yang earn?

How many of the expiring contracts get traded? DAEC, RWEC, MTEC
Will Grant get traded?

So much to see.

 

people have been comparing Clingan and Zang. So far the only factual comparisons are their pre-draft measurements. I wasn't really drawing any conclusion other than they are similar players, in size and mobility

 

just looking at some of the film clips seem like Yang has better offense and DC better D, but not that much to go off of until he plays against NBA players

 

that's the rub

Clingan showed he could dominate the paint and protect the rim, most of the time, against NBA players on NBA floors. Zang has highlight videos

 

LOL agree, trying to have some very restrained optimism

 

I think the most under-the-radar question on this team is Murray.

He's shown he can contribute in several ways, but his offense is almost unbelievably bad. It makes me wonder if he comes back even just slightly below average as a shooter how much more viable a piece he becomes for this team either moving forward or as a trade asset. He has to get better, doesn't he?

 

Yes, he can get better and return to 26.8% on threes and 6.1 points a game like his rookie season.

Maybe Yang can put in a good word for him in the Chinese league.

 

no he hasn’t.

 

A winning team can't rely on guys as bad as Murray to contribute. No matter how much the starting group improves, the second unit has to add more talent. Fortunately, they have a few years to acquire upgrades so they can consistently win playoff series'.

 

Agreed that Murray does a lot, especially on d. However, offense isn't his big problem - he shot .566 from 2, well better than the team average of a .527. His problem is, and has been, that he's supposed to be a 3-poiint shooter, but he can't in fact hit the 3.

.225 last year, team was .342, which is below league average. If he just was an average nba 3 point shooter, he'd be a quality rotation piece. However, as my dear old dad used to say "if my aunt would have had a mustache, she'd have been my uncle."

 

Ooh, fancy. A non mustachioed aunt.

 

The Ayton buyout tells me Yang is ready now. Can’t wait to watch him play.

 

the Ayton buyout says a lot more about Ayton than it does about anybody else

 

Actually, I think it says more about NBA culture than anything else. Ant, Grant, and Ayton would be a top nba bench, but...

• vets don't want to come off the bench.
• high salaried players don't want to come off the bench.
• multimillionaire vets will pout if they don't get their way.
• coaches won't bench them.
• other vets won't want to come here if these vets are forced to come off the bench.

Put another way, Billups is a pussy.

 

There isn't any question on Murray - he's not going to be a useful NBA player. It's not like he's young - he turns 25 in about a month. Anfernee Simons was also 25 this month, do you think he's a young question mark?

Rayan Rupert might be a question mark - he's only 21. I'm not expecting much from him - but I'm at least willing to see what happens next year.

We are well past time to move on from Murray.