Blazers Shock The NBA By Trading For Yang Hansen On The Brief Case, 2025 NBA Draft Edition

Blazers Shock The NBA By Trading For Yang Hansen On The Brief Case, 2025 NBA Draft Edition

[Music] hey Rip City this is DeAndre Aiden and it’s time to open the briefcase with Casey Hull greetings Bler fans and welcome to the briefcase presented by Spiritmount Casino a special 2025 NBA draft edition of the briefcase presented by Spiritmount Casino i am your host Casey Holdall and the Portland Trailblazers keeping them guessing at the 2025 NBA draft start with the 11th pick trade down to 16 end up drafting Yong Hansen out of China who they’ve been scouting for a couple years we’ll talk about the pick we’ll talk about the surprise the Trailblazers pulled on the rest of the NBA in the first round and we’ll discuss Yong’s game and how he might fit into the Trailblazers and the NBA on this edition of the Briefcase presented by Spiritmount Casino well maybe the overarching goal of any draft is to protect your hand the best way to go about entering a draft be it an NBA draft or any other professional sports is to not let other teams know what your plan is to guard those things and to be a surprise when you’re on the clock a lot of times that doesn’t happen everybody talks the league has a lot of people doing intel so everyone kind of generally has an assumption about maybe what players teams like maybe where teams are are slotting in particular players and while teams don’t necessarily know exactly what the other 29 teams are doing generally they feel like they have a decent sense of kind of which direction teams are going that cannot be the case for the Portland Trailblazers absolutely surprising the entire NBA by taking Yong Hansen out of China with the 16th pick the way it started Trailblazers with the 11th pick end up drafting Cedric Coward who I know a lot of Trailblazer fans were interested in started his career with Lamit then Eastern Washington then Washington State was going to go to Duke but then decided to declare for the NBA draft so that was the 11th pick but news came out right away that that pick was actually going to Memphis trailblazers were getting in exchange for the draft right to Cedric Howard the 16th pick a 2028 first round pick from the Orlando Magic and two future second round picks they used the 16th pick as I mentioned to draft Yang Hansen 71 250lb center turning 20 years old today and on Thursday so just turning 20 years old happy birthday Yang and uh so the Trailblazers going completely off board there with a player that I don’t know that anyone had him going in the first round i know teams were interested in him obviously um and now that kind of Portland made that pick you’re starting to see more and more kind of discussion about like yeah this guy looked pretty good and and seems like he’s got a lot of talent maybe not necessarily expecting him to go in the first round but the Troublers were able to move back and they got draft assets by moving back and still were able to get the player that they’ve targeted and did so while not letting anybody in the league basically know what their plan was which they executed that plan to perfection now it’s going to be seen how well Young Hansen fits in with the Trailblazers and gets up to the speed of the game you watch his highlight package tons and tons of talent there’s already discussion about him being a the the Chinese Jokic uh Joe Cronin kind of you don’t want to you won’t put a limit on a guy who’s like obviously Jokic is a oneof one but having kind of a similar skill set a guy with that kind of size who’s able to pass who’s able to to create for others who’s able to shoot from distance who’s got great footwork who’s able to score in the paint as well a great defender the defensive player of the year two years ago in the Chinese league rising star the last two years in the Chinese league and a guy who you know has all of those measurables but also a ton ton of talent and and also I I know one of the things the the Blazers really liked about him is he just he he loves basketball and and seems like a guy who is very excited to to come to the United States and prove what he can do and again a player that that I obviously is surprised no one had him going in the middle of the first round i don’t know if anyone had him going in the first round which is why the Trailblazers were able to get some draft capital from the Grizzlies but they didn’t want to chance it too much you know and that’s kind of the thing when when you move back so obviously the Trailblazers had targeted Young in this draft that much is obvious now they went into this draft with Young as their number well I guess I won’t say number one because perhaps maybe they had some guys who went in the first 10 picks ahead of Young i I’d be pretty surprised if that was the case i I think the plan was to take Yang Hansen in this draft no matter what the question was how far back can we go while still feeling confident that we’re going to be able to draft him while also being able to to get some assets from the teams that that are trading up to to get the rights in this case to Cedric Coward and so the Trailblazers you know they they moved back five spots and got a first round pick 2028 from the Orlando Magic via the Memphis Grizzlies yet to be seen kind of what that pick looks like the the Magic seem like they’re a team they’re improving but you know it only takes one injury for for a team to to kind of have to pull the cord on a season so we’ll see where that pick ends up also getting these second round picks one of those let me I just had that up and now I forgot it uh second round pick 2027 second round pick from Atlanta 2028 second round pick from Sacramento all those obviously coming from Memphis but via those various locations so the Trailblazers get the player that they targeted get some draft capital in exchange a first round pick and two second round picks and also when you move back that changes the salary slot that that player is into so I mean I don’t that I don’t think that was in any part of their their their kind of motivations for it but spending a little less money with the 16th pick than they would have with the 11th pick so they end up getting a player that as I mentioned they’ve been scouting for years uh Joe Cronin said that both Mike Smiths and and Sergi had had gone to China two years ago to scout Yong and Blazers playing the Chinese national team in a scrimmage at summer league last year that I believe also included Yang had him in a workout on May 29th the one of the workouts they had with first round guys he was in the workout with with Asa Newell and uh Rashier Fleming Will Riley Liam McNeely and one other guy who’s Noah Penda as well so was a participant in that workout so was already in Portland uh reg is with Clutch participated in the uh the workout the Clutch Pro day that they had in Los Angeles a few weeks back as well um so he’s been in in in in the United States he was expecting to get drafted obviously he was at Barclay Center with Rich Paul had to come down through the stands to get onto the stage since he didn’t get invited to the Green Room which again just goes to show how well the Trailblazers kept that kind of close to the to the vest in that he didn’t even get a green room invite and they gave green room inbats to I think 30 players this year so the Blazers doing a really good job again of hiding their plan and now it we’ll see I if kind of all the work they put in one with the scouting and two I don’t know if you necessarily call it subtrifuge but definitely again being very cy about what they were planning to do with the 2025 NBA draft we’ll now see if all those things pay off the other part about that too is you know a lot of times international players particularly with young players you know there’s sometimes an assumption that maybe they’re going to stay for for another year or two to to continue to to develop before coming to the United States it doesn’t sound like that will be the the case with Hansen it sounds like he will be coming over to the United States he’s already here now obviously uh I suspect that he will be in town on Friday for a press conference and uh will begin his career as a Portland Trailblazer i would assume that he’s going to play at a summer league i don’t I don’t know if there’s any international competitions going on this summer that China would be a part of that he uh would be playing in but uh I one he he is going to be in town here within the next couple days and I would fully suspect that maybe he even stays here and starts his preparations for summer league and I would imagine that he is going to play at summer league with the Trailblazers which should be exciting um but real quick let’s go and just get read the press release real fast here just to to make sure that that we get everything right portland Trailblazers have acquired the draft rights to center Yang Hansen the number 16th pick in the 2025 NBA draft as well as a 2028 first round pick via Orlando a 2027 second round pick via Atlanta and a 2028 second round pick via Sacramento from the Memphis Grizzlies in exchange for the draft rights to Cedric Coward who Porton selected with the 11th pick in the 2025 NBA draft yang listed at 71 253 pounds has spent the last two seasons playing for the Quing Dao Eagles senior team in China’s top professional league the CBA coming off a 202425 season in which he averaged 16.6 points 10.5 rebounds 3.0 assists 2.6 blocks and 32.8 minutes per game in 45 contests obviously those are great numbers a guy of Hansen size 19 years old playing almost 33 minutes a game that’s really impressive for a guy that size to to be able to move and to play that many minutes in a a very good league in China i I think says a whole lot about kind of where he’s already at right now in terms of his fitness and his development physically yang was named a CBA rising star of the year in each of the last two seasons with Quing Dao as well as the 2023 24 CBA defensive player of the year and an allCBA domestic players first team selection and a CBA Allstar for both the 2023 24 and the 20242 seasons the Zebo Shandong China native also competed in the 2023 FIEA U19 World Cup for China averaging 12.6 points 10.4 rebounds 4.9 assists and an event high 5.0 zero blocks per game so really a little bit of everything with Jansen you get a great offensive player he’s got the skills to be a great offensive player all the tools he can shoot from outside mid-range game face up game post game but also a phenomenal passer when you when you see kind of some of the highlight packages that are going out now a lot of those passes I mean obviously having the size to to be a passer really helps but having the willingness too and being a guy who really wants to get his teammates involved you know that that’s a that’s a really good thing to have at the center position and then the defensive end great instincts a guy who’s going to be a rim protector who obviously h has the size and the length to be an elite shot blocker in the NBA so he’s got all the tools he’s got all of the things you want in a center and you know I think we’ve seen you know after a few years of of everyone kind of moving away from from big centers seems like those guys are starting to come back particularly centers that have a lot of skills yeah if you’re if you’re kind of a groundbound center who is more of a post guy who doesn’t really have a good handle or a good ability to get other guys involved yeah you might have a hard time kind of in in today’s NBA but if you’re someone who’s able to operate out of the high post or the low post great for others have cutters i mean I you know you don’t want to invoke the name Arvita Sabonis because it’s hallowed and he is one of the greatest to ever do it but I think that’s kind of the the archetype that you’re looking at when you when you’re looking at a guy if he’s able to reach his full potential that’s the kind of player that I I think the Trailblazers feel he could be and I mean obviously you know when people are calling him the Chinese Jokic I mean Joic is at that level of player as Arvdus Aonus and maybe a bit better obviously if we had gotten to see Arvdus when he was healthy you know maybe that’s a different conversation but either way you know that style of center enormous able to create for himself and for others and a smart defensive positional player who has the length to block shots in today’s NBA you got to be able to kind of defend out to the perimeter a little bit as well the fact he’s able to shoot the three it will at least draw defenses away from the paint which is going to create things for the other Blazer guards especially you have to be seen as if he’s able to defend out that far um you but again you kind of see his footwork he he’s he’s not a plotting center like he’s he seems nimble light on his feet uh it doesn’t seem like he’s not like chugging up and down the floor like he looks fluid for a guy who’s 71 253 lbs so you know you again while it might have been a surprise for him to get selected where he got selected that’s really I think more a function of just you know what I talked about on the last edition of the briefcase which is that there’s just not the same level of kind of draft intelligence out there that there used to be and so if you’re a team like the Blazers that again wants to keep things quiet doesn’t want other teams to to know what they’re doing one because they want to keep everyone off off center but also they don’t want another team to be like “Well maybe maybe we should look at this guy a little bit closer and see if you know he’s got the skills that we want.” You know there you’ve already heard there were a couple other teams Brooklyn being one of those teams that supposedly had interest um so you know the fact that he did get taken when people weren’t especially or not especially when people at all weren’t expecting him to get taken there i mean part of that I think is you know maybe he wasn’t as valued as much in other organizations as he was by the Trailblazers but I’m guessing maybe they didn’t have as much intel haven’t seen him as as many times as the Trailblazers have um again they’ve seen him at least three times in person uh sending the scouts to to China a couple years ago seeing him at summer league uh last year and then seeing him at their practice facility in Talton at the end of May you know they probably have a bigger book on him maybe than than some of the other the other teams did and so while again it might be surprising where he got picked I don’t think it’s surprising to see a player with his skills and measurables and the notion of what he could be as an NBA player that isn’t surprising to me i I think you know when once you kind of once you get over the initial shock of like oh boy none of us were really expecting that to happen and you start to kind of consider what kind of player is young Hansen what does he do on a a floor that is transferable to the NBA where is he at in his development process what has the competition been like that he’s played against both domestically and internationally and what does that tell us about maybe how quickly he might be able to make the jump to the NBA you know all those things are questions that you have to answer about a player and I believe the Blazers felt like they had done enough work to answer those questions and felt very comfortable about drafting him in the first round and they’re also able to extract some assets while doing so as well so they get the player they want and they get three draft assets as well including a first round pick that you know that first round pick for the Larry Nance trade with the Bulls is still out there in the ether so like until that gets resolved that can make it difficult to do trades when it comes to draft picks so having additional first round draft picks opens up some flexibility in terms of being able to trade picks as well for any other moves they might be making and that’s kind of the the last thing I’ll say the way I’ll close it out here and this is something that Joe Cronin did address in this press conference is you look at Portsman’s roster now and they have five centers you have DeAndre Aton you have Robert Williams III you have Donovan Klingan you have Dwap Rereath and now you have Yang Hansen five centers is a lot for any team to be carrying that is a third of your team for one position and I don’t really think that any of those guys necessarily can play like the four you can make an argument for DeAndre but he’s a five uh you can make the DWOP I think is probably the the guy you can most claim is a four but either way you got five guys who all kind of play the same position probably going to need to figure that out uh I I would be shocked if the Blazers went into the 2025 26 season carrying five centers on their roster um and you know so we’ll see how that how that plays out you know obviously there’s already been one reported trade uh hasn’t been finalized yet so people like myself and Joe Cronin not that I’m necessarily comparing myself to Joe but uh not supposed to be talking about those things just yet but you’ve seen the reports so the Blazers have already engaged in in at least one trade uh this off season i suspect that uh they are going to be a part of uh multiple trades this off seasonason and I think you know we’ve already seen a lot of action in the NBA you know it’s not a big free agency year um so the assumption is that a lot of teams are going to be looking to to make trades in order to improve their team or to reset their teams which I think we’re already seeing multiple teams particularly in the Eastern Conference um going ahead and making some moves to kind of prepare themselves for the next phase of uh of their franchises and the Trailblazers doing that as well by drafting Young Hansen with the 16th pick by trading back also getting a first round pick 2028 from the Orlando Magic and two second round picks of 2027 and 2028 and that’s going to do it for this edition of the briefcase thank you so much for joining me as always as I mentioned Friday press conference I would assume with Yong Hansen so more to come in terms of what he says from that press conference and just getting to know him a little bit so you’re definitely going to want to be on on the lookout for that both here and on trailblazers.com and on all of our social channels as well thanks so much for joining me as always please like and subscribe wherever you get your podcast as I mentioned it’s going to be an exciting off season a lot of transactions this offseason you got Summer League coming up here just in a few weeks i will be down in Las Vegas covering the action there uh seeing Yong Hansen getting his his first run as a Portland Trailblazer I would assume and uh should be interesting should be a a a transitional offseason for the Trailblazers i think a lot of the things that people have been assuming throughout the last couple seasons they might need to address I think this is a year those things get done thank you for joining me as always we’ll talk again soon i’m Casey Holdall you’ve been watching the Briefcase presented by Spiritmount Casino go Blazers [Music]

On this special 2025 NBA Draft Edition of the Brief Case, presented by Spirit Mountain Casino, Trail Blazers beat reporter/Insider Casey Holdahl discusses…

• The Trail Blazers trading the draft rights to Cedric Coward for Chinese center Yang Hansen, a 2028 first-round pick and second-round picks in the 2027 and 2028 Drafts

• Portland shocking the NBA and the media by keeping their selection secret

• The reasons the Trail Blazers targeted Hansen, who they have been scouting for at least the last two years

• Is Yang Hansen “Chinese Jokic” or “Sino Sabonis”

• The Trail Blazers having five centers on their roster

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