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Trail Blazers at Summer League: Yang Hansen set to make his debut in Vegas



Trail Blazers at Summer League: Yang Hansen set to make his debut in Vegas

In today’s show, it’s finally here. Hansen’s debut with the Portland Trailblazers, or at least the Las Vegas Summer League edition of the Portland Trailblazers. Welcome to Locked On Blazers. Let’s rejoice. Let’s get into it. You are Locked On Trailblazers, your daily Portland Trailblazers podcast. Part of the Locked On podcast network. your team every day. What’s up world? It’s your past first point guard and trailblazers reporter Mike Richmond. You’re listening to another episode of Locked on Blazers, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, available wherever you get podcast and also on YouTube. Thanks for making this show your first listen. Coming at you each and every weekday, Monday through Friday. So make it a part of your daily routine. Make it your first listen. Tell your friends to do the same. It’s locked on Blazers, your team every day. In today’s show, we’re talking Summer League. It’s Hansen’s debut. Let’s go. Rejoice. It’s finally here. Plus, I’ll talk about kind of what I’m anticipating from watching him at Summer League. Kind of what what I what I think about what we might see and how I’m going to watch it in general. Some thoughts on how to watch and react to Summer League through the uh from your couch or if you happen to be in the building because a lot of people go uh these days. Um you know, like kind of what is real, what isn’t when you’re watching Summer League. and then some caveats in both directions. Plus, the Blazers added a new assistant coach to the roster. Welcome to Rip City, James Posey. We’ll talk about that to close the show. Let’s get into it. It’s here. Hansen’s going to play basketball and he’s going to wear uh it’s not really a Portland Trailblazers jersey. It’s an NBA summer league jersey uh with the Portland Trailblazers, but I I am I am like legitimately very excited to watch this on Friday evening. Um it’s going to be fun. It’s going to be fun. Uh, I I think I I certainly didn’t have this level of excitement to watch Donovan Klingan debut in summer league to be just totally honest. I like Donovan Cllingan just fine, but I wasn’t I didn’t have this level of excitement. This is this is on par with my my anticipation of scoop, but but there is something it’s probably it’s probably stronger than that quite frankly because of just the general mystery box part of it all. Like you know Hunton’s played games, right? Like you can, in fact, right before this, right before I pressed record on this very podcast, if you’ve got access to uh to League Pass, you can go back and watch him play California Classic games in summer league last year. That’s that’s the held in Sacramento, the like pre Vegas summer league that they they host there. I did I watched the first half of his game against the Hornets. Um just to get sort of a feel for what I might be anticipating in to to continue to key up the anticipation. Um, and because I guess I’m just fing to watch Hansen play basketball. So, like he’s not he’s not like a complete mystery if you care to watch, right? He’s played some international competition against um various NBA level players, CBA games, right? But in terms of the translation from playing in the CBA to the NBA and the general anticipation on draft night that he was like a pick in the 30s and the Blazers called their shot, traded back to get him at 16. one of the most surprising picks of I don’t know the last 5 years or so. I believe Sam Vini called it one of the most surprising picks of the last decade. He knows this stuff better than I do. For me, just like one of the most surprising first round picks I can remember. There’s part of that part of that whole package is wrapped up into the anticipation anticipation of watching Hansen play. I’m excited. I’m excited. I’ve missed basketball too, quite frankly. Um, you know, I I watch a little bit of the WNBA, but it’s um the NBA is is really the the NBA is really what gets my blood going, and so I’m excited to watch um the the worst version of it, which is NBA Summer League. Uh but I’m I’m sort of as I’m gearing up and thinking about watching Hans, and I mentioned this to begin the week, is like kind of um he’s the most exciting player, and I’m curious how the Blazers use him. Like so much of of what of of what I’m curious about is how uh you know does he run mostly pick and rolls? Does he run a lot of high post stuff? Is he does he get direct postups touches? Um I do think as a prospect for me I think he is going to be much stronger on offense than he is on defense as he makes the transition to the pros. Uh I’ll talk about his defense in a little bit, but I know that he won defensive player of the year in the in the CBA. I do not think that is a translatable award in any way whatsoever. There’s no 3 seconds in the CBA and there aren’t NBA level athletes. It’s just a different thing. But when you watch him play, the offensive gifts look much more translatable than the defensive gifts. I think he’s just going to be um I think I think he’s going to be a much stronger early in his career on offense that he’s on defense. Eventually, you hope that he’s he’s, you know, good at everything, right? But uh but to be, you know, he’s 20, right? Setting reasonable expectations. Have your strengths be strong and and to my eyes, I think his strengths are absolutely on the offensive end of the floor. Um and uh like that’s that’s I think where where you’re going to see him be his his best self. My question is again, how do they use him? Watching him play with the Chinese team in the California Classic last year, they ran some direct postups for him just like um an action that you will see uh NBA teams run for like guys they want to post up. The Nuggets will run this for uh for Joic sometimes. It’s what they call a wedge screen in the NBA. It’s when an offball little guard comes and screens uh comes and screens the center away from the ball kind of like near the foul line extended like at the elbow. So the so you can like either catch on the move which is what they do for Joic a lot or in or in Hansen’s case kind of get space to get to the block and then you can throw like a direct post up in there. I don’t think the Blazers are going to run many of those wedge screen post-ups. I mean, Terry Dots used to run a similar action like that uh for LaMarcus Aldridge with Wesley Matthews as the screener. It’s not like it’s totally never happens in the league. Like I mentioned, like Denver does an action just like that. When the games start in October, I don’t know if if Hansen will be a direct five, a direct post up center, right? Like we’ll see. But I do think in summer league he should get some post-up touches like get because his feet are great in the post. Like he has good footwork. Um he loves to spin. Um, the man loves to spin and get to his right hand. Uh, he’ll spin baseline. He’ll spin middle. He spins mostly middle, but he’ll spin baseline if you give it to him. Uh, like I I want to see that. I want to see those post up actions. I want to see them run plays that are like, let’s throw it to him on the block and let him go to work because I want to see him go to work. I think that’s where his strengths are. Like, I think the Blazers have to be thinking like, let’s get him some confidence. Now, if it doesn’t work right away, you don’t want to like force feed it, right? Like that’s what it’s what I I’ve referred to in the past as bow bonding. It’s like you just get obsessed with how some how tall someone is and say this has to work. Keep throwing the ball. It’s like sometimes it works. Boon was an incredibly efficient permanent monster, but sometimes you get obsessed with throwing it with like chasing mismatches. It’s it’s not your most efficient play. So I want to see them I want to see him get touches in the post, intentional touches in the post. I want to see him run pick and roll because I not only want to see him like as just a straight up roll man, right? Um, like I guess it would be Caleb Love, but it could be Ryan Rupair, but Caleb Love like come off screen. Maybe CDso too a little bit because he’s okay passer. He’s a good passer, but um like I want to see him come off a screen and roll to the rim and kind of feel that space because I think that’s a real skill as a big man is rolling to the rim and not just like hey there’s a wide open lane you get to roll just nobody you know part of the seed to the rim but when you do roll the rim in in a crowd rolling to the rim getting a feel for either getting behind someone and getting a lob or creating a little bit of space to catch in front or kind of like being a decoy, right? like rolling till you’re just enough of a worry that the the ball handler can get to the rim. That feel on pick and rolls is something I want to watch closely with him. I also want to watch if if they do switch on pick and rolls, if the fans switch on pick and rolls, can Hansen mash in the post? Mash mashing every time you get a small on you. You know, I don’t know if he’ll be a direct post up guy, but anytime he gets someone who’s like 6’5 on him, if they if they switch on the perimeter or if they get caught in a late switch in a pick and roll, walk that dude down to the block and and just eat him alive. like I I want to see that and and and and some high post stuff and the passing. He’s a really good passer. Summer League might not be super organized enough to see a ton a ton a ton of passing, but good passers have a way of showing you they’re they’re good passers just by feel and weight. And what I talk about that is just like a guy who can really pass, he’ll make simple reads or he’ll make easy passes with give you a little just instead of a simple bounce pass, a little bounce pass with a read or uh like hit ahead passes or passes to the corner. What I’m talking about is weight is like good passers, you’ll know it when you see it. Uh it’ll have great weight on the ball. When do you throw a bullet? When do you throw a lob? When do you throw in between those two speeds to throw a perfect pass? Good passers have a way of showing you they can pass. even make simple reads. I think we’ll see that even if we don’t see crazy dimes. But obviously, I want to see some crazy dimes. I want to see that. I want to see some graband-go stuff. I want to see if they let him get a defensive rebound and push up the floor. Maybe he won’t be able to do that. And maybe it’ll be a real struggle in in this level of competition for him to do that. But I think I hope he has the green light to try some of that stuff, some open floor stuff. Um because that’s in the CBA highlights in China, it’s like, yeah, Hansen can do that and that’s fun. It’s really general variety on offense. post ups, pick and roll, high post in transition, the passing, like the general variety. And I like I want to see his touch around the rim because I think it’s really good. I want to see that translate. Obviously, the spinning dude loves a spin move. I want to see that. And I want to see him play through contact. Generally, big players in the NBA, the way it works, and and this is not always true in summer league, but often is like big players, they just let you get beat up more than little guys. Big players have to deal with getting fouled more. like um I think the the Thunder kind of unlocked it with Alex Gruso. Put Alex Guso on Nicolic in game seven of that game and they’re just like Alex Gruso, foul him every time down the floor. They won’t call it. No, they caught a little bit of it, but like you’re just allowed to get away with so much physicality against bigs. Um and I I want to see Hansen play through contacts um and like and that type of physicality because summer league can be very physical often is very physical because everybody’s kind of playing for a job. Um and I want to see him play through mistakes. I I think that’s an important part about young players. In a perfect world, Hansen is, you know, 11 for 11 from the floor, seven of seven from the free throw line, 11 assists, zero turnovers, 13 rebounds, four blocks. He’s probably not going to have that game, right? He’s not going to have this like monster game. He’s going to make some mistakes. Like last year in in in the California Classic, he shot under 44% from the floor, right? He’s going to miss some shots. He’s going to struggle a little bit at times, but the part of like being young, he’s 19 when he’s playing when he he just turned 19 playing in the California Classic last year. He’s just turned 20. It’s like, you know, he’s probably better. He’s probably more physical. He’s probably just a generally better basketball player, stronger person, more mature human. So, playing through mistakes when you do screw up, when you do maybe drop a pass or you try to fit a pass through and turn the ball over. When you do get beat on defense, hang your head or like do you do you get after it? Do you just like it is all of a sudden like um you responding to mistakes? Um, I want to talk about his defense. I want to talk about how I will watch summer league, uh, with what’s known as the Nicholas Batum Josh Selby scale. Join me in that second segment. Talk more about Hansen, particularly on the defensive end, uh, and plus watching summer league. That’s what we’ll do. Join me there. First though, I want to tell you that today’s episode is brought to you by the good folks over at Game Time. If you want to go see last minute sporting events, you want to get tickets, last minute tickets to sporting events, well, game time is a place to do it. You can take your friends, you can take your family, you can take uh someone you are courting, whether it’s game day, game night, and you suddenly realize you want to be in the stands. That’s exactly where game time comes in. It’s the easiest way to grab last minute tickets without the stress. 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So, I’m excited to watch Hansen on offense. I think that’s his best side of the ball. The other side of the ball seems a little diceier. Um, I don’t think he’s gonna get like filelet on defense. I just think he’s gonna be worse there. He’s gonna he’s g it is there may be some moments where you’re like, “Oh, yeah. Huh.” That like that’s a place where he needs to get better. I I think he’ll struggle on defense in the NBA this season. Young players typically struggle on defense in the NBA. Um, I think he’s going to have a physical adjustment, physicality, and speed adjustment that is going to be a significant leap from the quality of of competition he has typically played against. and like, oh, he’s he’s 20. Like, it’s just it’s just a big leap for him. He’s making he’s making a big leap. Um, summer league is not the NBA, though. It’s not. It’s not. You’re going to be playing in any given game in summer league. You might be playing against one dude who gets rotation minutes in the league the following year. It’s a lot of guys on the fringe. It’s still highlevel basketball. Like, it’s competitive highle basketball, right? Like, it’s it’s like summer league teams would like smoke most college teams by like many, many, many, many. But like it’s not it’s not NBA quality because the jump to like playing against like true stars who like feast on your weaknesses is just like a whole another thing. So, I don’t think maybe the Hansson’s um maybe Hansen’s defense is, you know, not ide I it’s not perfect, right? But I think um I I think there is a level that he could play at that is like raises a red flag a little bit on the defensive end. And I think in general playing really well at summer league is like, okay, cool. That was a good performance. whereas playing really poorly at summer league actually probably draws up more. I’ll talk a little bit about the Batum Selby scale in a moment, but so like there is a there are some struggles that Hudson could have on defense where I’d be like, “Oh no.” But but in general, I don’t I think he’s going to have a little bit of problem there. So I’m not I just I just generally will not freak out much at all. Like yeah, hey, that’s a place we need to improve. I think the lateral quickness is one thing that is for sure um worth keeping an eye on. He’s pretty fast end to end for his size. Like straight line running, that’s not like people watch him run and be like, “Wow, he’s faster than I thought he’d be.” And I I agree. But like that’s different than lateral quickness to move and stay in front of guards on a switch and all those things. Like quite frankly, like those are different muscles running forward and running sideways. Um it’s just like a different different set of power that you have to generate. It’s it’s those are different skills like physically a different thing. But um so I think the lateral quickness is one thing. If he struggles there, sure. Sure. Like you know that that’s just something he’ll have to get better at. But also you can mitigate some of your lateral quickness by being really big and he happens to be really big and you just have to get smarter about not getting caught, right? And I think that’s one thing that you know Donovan Clingan really has struggled with lateral quickness but he did a really good job this year of saying like I’m so big. What if I what if I give you a little bit of space and like make you know and like try to avoid the situations where I’m just like guarding way out on the perimeter and and feel like I have to move my feet too much. like you get you can you can you can figure it out. Uh Klingan is obviously a much better defensive player uh than I expect Hansen to be, but Hansen is probably a much better offensive player than I think uh Klingan is. So there you go. Give and take. The thing I’ll actually be watching though for Hansen on defense is his offball anticipation. That’s going to be much where I’m keyed on than the lateral quickness because like sure he gets caught on switches whenever you get burned. Like big guys get burned on switches. That’s life, right? like Rudy Goar is a four-time defensive player of the year and teams try to get him on switches and try to make him guard in the perimeter. Um, you know, he to varying degrees he gets super cooked or he’s had some moments where um that are less viral where where Go’s like totally functional out there. But again, he that’s like one of the best defensive players of all time. Um, you’re going to struggle if you’re that big. You’re going to struggle on the perimeter. So, it’s offball anticipation when you are weak side and you’re not in the play. How quickly does Hansen get over to the rim? How quickly is he disruptive as as a rotating shot blocker? How quickly does he show help when he needs to? It’s that offball anticipation, the reading and reacting on defense that I think is actually a better sign of of your overall defensive potential than like can you stay in front of this whatever little NCA guard that they’ve thrown out there, right? Like Jamari Buouay cooks you. Whoops. Like it’s fine. Jamari Buouya is probably like 28. He’s not an NCA guard. In any case, um, like I said, playing well at summer league not a guarantee and playing poorly to me is not is also not a guarantee. Um, I do think it’s a little bit worse, but I want to talk about the Nichols Batum Josh Selby scale as a way of not overreacting regardless of what Hansen does at summer league. And I’m just focusing on him like I’m going to watch, you know, like I’ll mention this in a second. Hold on. Uh, so Nicholas Batum comes to Summer League as a teenager. Um, at the time we were calling him batum. We didn’t know who he was, right? like he’s he’s he’s brand new and he stunk in Vegas. Like could barely dribble across half court. Stunk. Horrendous. I was very very worried. Um he won the starting job in some in in training camp that fall, started for a Nate McMillan team, is still in the NBA 17 years later or whatever it is. Don’t overreact. On the other side of the spectrum is the Josh Selby. Josh Selby was co- MVPs with Damen Lillard in 2012 of of summer league. Damen Lillard, MVP of summer league, went on to win rookie of the year, is a Hall of Famer. Josh Selby, co-VP of summer league, did not stick in the league, barely played. Don’t overreact. The important thing about summer league is seeing things that are repeatable and figuring out where that guy fits into the role that he has on his team and how you can repeat it. That’s not naturally done for every single player you watch in summer league. But if you are a big Blazers fan, you’re thinking about Hansen, it’s easy to say like, okay, well that’s something he’s not good at, so they’ll they can figure that out. That’s something he’s really good at, so they can figure that out. But if he does struggle, it’s there are Nicholas Batums and if he does dominate, there are Josh Selby. Obviously, there are players who struggle a bunch and we’re not NBA players. Like I said, red flags and there’s players who are really stinking good in summer league. Donovan Mitchell comes to mind, Damen Lillard, who was like, “Oh, yeah, they’re going to be really good.” And they were right away, right? Like that that type of thing. The other thing to watch in summer league is um kind of I I like to think of it as two there’s sort of two different baskets guys fall in. There’s guys expanding their role and there’s guys finding their role. So Ryan Rupair, he’s going to be playing his third summer league with the Blazers. And for him, it’s about expanding his role. It’s about doing stuff in summer league that you wouldn’t get an opportunity to do when you play with the Blazers. So, on ball pick and roll stuff like um taking off the dribble three-pointers, dribbling the ball, you know, 15 times in a possession, attacking the rim, getting downhill, and making plays on like a drive and kick, right? Um cuz Rupair is going to be an offball spacer wing when he plays for the Blazers if he gets playing time at all. like but at summer league as a thirdyear guy and it really doesn’t matter how young he is at this point. It’s just like he’s he’s had enough NBA experience that he needs to be pretty good in summer league for you to feel good about it. He doesn’t need to be dominant but um if he’s bad in summer league I think it’s like you’ve seen enough of him at an NBA level to be like okay that’s a bad sign. Again, you don’t have to write it off, but you could. It would be worse for a guy like Rupair, who is an older player who looking to expand his role to struggle than for other players. Other players are guys like Hansen and uh the two-way guys, Caleb Love and Cida Suzoko. It’s about establishing the role. What do you do on the court at summer league that you that can get you um can get you to stick, right? Uh okay, for Hansen, it’s like, well, if he catches it and can get to the middle with his right hand, good stuff happens. How do they do that in in um you know in in in uh in the regular season? And for Love and Susoko, it’s like you see some strengths and figure out, okay, what are those what are those things and how are those translatable? Or is it just like, you know, if someone just like has a crazy shooting night, it’s like, well, you know, it’s it how if they go say six of 14 from three, it’s like, well, you’re probably not going to get 14 three-pointers in NBA game. So like uh what what is that uh what is you know what does it look like um in a normal role and then I think the most important thing when you’re watching summer league is underreacting but knowing what you see. So the using the batum and Selby scale right was you want to underreact to terrible stuff and underreact to wonderful stuff but knowing what you see. But like I said, like, hey, there’s some stuff here. Offensive touch, the weight on those passes, those type of things where you say like, this person can Hansen can play, but he’s got to clean this stuff up. Or Hansen is good at these things and these will work, bad at these things, and these won’t work. Here’s here’s what here’s where he needs to get better. Or, okay, Caleb Love can, you know, he’s strong and relentless. What does it look like? Underreacting to the actual box score stuff and the results. like don’t even look at the box really. But underreacting to that stuff and kind of knowing what you see in context of the team they exist on. That is the magic of being an amateur scout at summer league. Okay. Um let’s let’s talk let’s let’s talk James Posie. The Blazers hired a new assistant coach and we will get into uh who they are. Actually, you’ve probably heard of him if you’ve been following the NBA for the last two decades. Welcome to Rip City, James Posey. We’ll talk about that to close the show. Join me in that third segment. Still a pass versus point guard, still Mike Richmond. You are still listening to Locked on Blazers. The Blazers today announced a new addition to Chanty Bilips’s coaching staff. It’s NBA veteran James Posey. Pose, welcome to Rip City. James Posey had a 12-year NBA career spanning from 1999 to 2011. was a two-time NBA champion during his time in the league. Won a title with the Heat in 2006 and won a title with the Celtics in 2008. He was a pretty um useful part of both of those championship teams as sort of a role player forward. Um after he retired in 2011, he eventually got into coaching working in the Cavaliers organization. Um first in the G- League where he was an assistant with the Canton Charge. I guess at the time that might have still been the D uh in the D-League uh when when the G didn’t stand for Gatorade and the D stand for development. He was in the NBA developmental league in 23 24 2013 2014 with a can charge. From there he was hired on to uh to various staffs because a couple different coaches but but he was hired to be an assistant with the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2014 through the 2018 2019 season. um he you know he he spent he spent a fairly long time um seven years with with uh with the Cavaliers organization one way or another coaching right like that that’s a that’s a good little stint in the league figuring how it works he was an assistant coach on the Cavs team that won the championship in 2016 like the dude has um he’s he’s been around winning a bunch um after he after the 2019 season when um when it all when it all went away. Uh he he uh briefly coached for the um University of Virginia women’s basketball team during the 2122 season. The head coach at the time of the Virginia Cavaliers was Tina Thompson, WNBA legend and Trailblazer scout. Um do not look up what what the UVA women’s basketball record was in 2122. Just don’t look it up. Trust me, don’t look don’t don’t get curious. Um, so Tina Thompson uh was let go from that job, maybe perhaps related to that record and and so Posy’s role on the UVA bench was was shortlived. And Thompson was actually hired by the Blazers as a scout in 2022 and still works in that role now. Um, so like there’s there’s there’s your connection with at least with some in the organization. But um following following that stint with the with um UVA, Posie got hired and worked as an assistant with the Washington Wizards and he spent the 22 23 and 23 24 season with the with Washington. With the Wizards, he was under Wes Onel Jr. um and and then uh uh Brian Keefe when when Enel Jr. got fired. And then after the 2024 season, last year, Posey was on Mike Budnzer staff in uh in Phoenix for the 24-25 season. And so, he comes to the Blazers from Phoenix. Again, I think this is the it’s so hard to know the quality of assistant coaches or what they’re going to actually do or be helpful, but I think in general, um what I look for in assistant coaching hires is literally just experience. Does the resume include the understanding of the grind? Obviously, you don’t have to do that. There’s guys who make the transition, but assistant coaching, assistant coaching is a bunch of unglamorous stuff. It’s a text message at 4 a.m. from a dude who’s having a bad week saying like, “Hey, can you can you rebound for me?” They’re probably going to text the video coordinators first, but they might end up with you depending on where you are on the list. It’s a lot of it’s a lot of late nights with film. It’s a lot of grinding. It is it is a it is a it is a hard job. It is a grind of a job. Um it is it is an it is unglamorous challenging work. So like part of me when I look at assistant coaching is like have you been in league? Do you understand how do you understand the challenge of this? Do you understand what getting a scout ready for someone who you play in 3 days but you got to get through a game, get on a plane, get like just just you know just the uh the rhythm that it takes. and and Posey who’s, you know, coached a long time for the Cavs, coached a couple seasons with the Wizards, and most recently with the Suns. He’s a he’s he’s a dude who obviously wants to be in the league. Um he’s he’s, you know, he’s he barely has been away since he retired in 20 in 2011. Like he spent a little time away spent a little time away after he finished working for the Cavs, but for the most part, he has coached in the G-League, he’s coached in the NBA, spent a little time as a as a women’s basketball coach in college in women’s college basketball as an assistant. Um, this is someone who understands the grind, appreciates the grind, just a a hoop lifer. And I think hoop lifer is a if nothing else is a great resume for for NBA assistant coach. Um, also like I don’t know that this matters, but but typically I think um uh stars don’t make good coaches. I think that’s like a uh I don’t even know if that’s necessarily true all the way down, but it is it is like a stereotype that’s true, but role players make really good coaches. And I think James Posey, like a guy who hung around in the league for for 12 seasons and figured out how to be a highlevel contributor, like you know, through a decade long NBA career, that’s helpful to have a guy on the bench. Here’s how you survive because the NBA is for so many dudes about survival, about figuring out where you get in, where you fit in. And that kind of ties back into summer league, right? So much of this stuff is like summer league is so meaningless, right? It’s so meaningless. Do you remember summer league moments? Yeah, I think I remember Damen Lord dunking on Keith Benson. like I remember that. Um I remember Peter Capone Copenan and and Jared Bis and how excited I was in that summer for those guys. Like sure, but in general like what you’re doing in summer league is figuring out where you can fit in. You’re figuring out the rhythms of your NBA team, what it’s like to communicate with coaches and all those things. And then you’re going out to go to to to get like play a little bit in games that don’t matter and and figuring out where you fit in. And now Posy’s probably not going to be a big member of the summer league staff necessarily. Um but like the whole coaching staff’s there. The whole whole organization is there. Pretty much everyone in the NBA is there. It’s pretty fun. The first weekend of summer league’s fun. If you’re if you’re in the gym, go enjoy it. Um because like everyone in the NBA is there. It’s it’s it’s a fun time. Um so like Posie, a guy who has stuck in learn to stick in the league and is working hard to stick in the league forever as he grinds his assistant coaching jobs. Um I think that’s speaks to the importance of summer league. Get in where you fit in and stick around if you can. Uh I think that is that is the lesson for so many in the NBA. That is going to do it for this week’s shows. Next time you hear me, the Blazers 12 played two summer league games. We’ll have two games of Hansen to talk about. I’ll promise this Friday night I’m going to watch this game. If Hansen goes nuts, I will record. You’ll get a sixth show this week. I will I I’ll I’ll hop on I’ll hop on the microphone late Friday night and we’ll we’ll talk about it. Um because if he goes nuts, like if it’s just like a bonkers game and and everyone is and it’s popping, I will hop on the microphone and we’ll do a little we’ll do a little short recap. If not, look for Sunday’s show after both of the games. They play Friday, Saturday after both of the games. Look for Sunday show and we’ll talk all things from Hansen’s first two games in the league, plus love and Rupair and Sissoko and uh any others that any other no news and notes from the Blazers first two preseason games. Tell your friends about the podcast. Tell them they can get it wherever they got podcasts and also on YouTube. I appreciate you listening. I’ll talk to you soon.

Hansen Day has arrived. Let’s talk about what expect and how to watch the Trail Blazers rookie as an amateur scout during Las Vegas Summer League.

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20 Comments

  1. Good thing us Blazer fans have reasonable expectations. As long as he has a Wemby like rookie year we’ll be satisfied.

  2. I think the pressure on Hansen to show legit flashes now are much higher than a typical Blazer draft pick. He needs to show it immediately in Summer League, and be a legit rotation player come the season. This isn't a Ryan Rupert situation where he get's 3 years to show something.

    Why? Because Joe Cronin declared he knows better than everybody by taking Hansen where he did. He further said they would have taken him in 2024 had Hansen been there to be taken (IE, no Clingan). If the Cowards, Essengue's, Bryant's and all the other players that could have reasonably been taken at 11 or 16 of the draft show out or have a better Season 1? If the Pelicans pick turns into a top 5 next year and Yang struggles (as confirmed by Joe Dumars the offer was given to the Blazers)? All of that is a problem.

    I'm rooting for Hansen of course, and if he sputters I won't blame him for it either. Hansen didn't control the things Joe Cronin decided to do and say. And like all rookies I'm going to give him a long leash to figure things out. But if he doesn't impress this season? That seat under Cronin is going to get warm, very fast, as new ownership comes in.

  3. Everyone needs to chill. The kid just turned 20 and is the 16th pick. If he averages 8/6/4 this year in 25 mins per game with the occasionally 25/10/5 game, that would be a great ROOKIE season. Thinking he'll come in and put up Jokic or Shaq numbers is setting yourself up for disappointment.

  4. Yang’s Debut prediction: 26 minutes, 7/13 shooting, 17 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 blocks, 1 steal, 4 turnovers, 5 fouls.

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