One thing is certain after the first round of the NBA Draft: This Portland Trail Blazers front office isn’t overly concerned with public opinion or making the conventional move.
On the heels of a polarizing trade that stunned the fanbase Monday, Portland general manager Joe Cronin and company pulled off the most shocking move of the draft on Wednesday. The franchise traded back from its No. 11 pick (used on Cedric Coward) for future draft capital and the No. 16 pick to select Yang Hansen, a little-known 7-foot-1 center from China. General consensus from mock drafts projected the 20-year-old big man wouldn’t come off the board until the second round, meaning he didn’t even get a Green Room invite to the event. He started from general attendance when he walked to the stage to shake NBA Commissioner Adam Silver’s hand.
As the dust settled from that surprise pick and the rest of the first round in Brooklyn, Cronin stepped out of the draft war room and behind the press conference podium in Tualatin. The GM admitted to reporters in his opening statement that the selection was unconventional, but he wasn’t bothered by that or the national mock boards. The front office trusted its gut, placed faith in its scouting department and got its guy.
“For us, it was too important to get him,” Cronin said. “We decided to do what some would call a reach. We decided to take that swing. … It shows what we thought of him.”
The franchise is touting its newest rookie as a cerebral center with advanced passing skills, a serviceable shooting stroke and enormous size that will help him on offense and defense (his 7-foot-1 height is complemented by a 7-foot-3 wingspan). That analysis and Portland’s selection of Hansen were the cumulation of two years of groundwork from the organization’s scouting department.
Cronin explained Hansen first entered the organization’s radar in the fall of 2023 when a Blazers scout spotted the big man at an under-18 event. Then Portland sent assistant GMs Mike Schmitz and Sergi Oliva to China to see the 7-footer in person, and they returned to the States impressed. Cronin said the Blazers were hoping Hansen would enter last summer’s draft when they owned the No. 7 overall pick and two second-rounders, but he decided to stay in China another year.
This past season with the Qingdao Eagles in the Chinese Basketball Association, Hansen averaged 16.6 points, 10.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 2.6 blocks and 32.8 minutes per game while shooting 58.6% from the field and 33.3% on 3s. He was named a CBA All-Star for the second year in a row in 2025, and he was also the CBA Defensive Player of the Year in 2024. The Blazers continued to scout Hansen, they met with him at the NBA Combine in the spring, and then they met with him again when the franchise hosted a pre-draft workout in Tualatin on May 29.
“Between our scouts identifying him early on and some of our big key decision-makers seeing him early on, I felt like we had a big advantage in our scouting process and building our book on him as a player,” Cronin said.
After that scouting process, Cronin said the Blazers entered Wednesday night targeting Hansen, and they didn’t feel comfortable dropping any lower than No. 16 to ensure they got him.
“It’s extremely difficult to find a young player of that stature with this skillset,” Cronin said. “ ... Really, really skilled big men that can do all the things that he can do typically succeed in our league. It might take him a little time, but as he figures out the speed and pace of our game and all these things, I wouldn’t put a ceiling on him. He’s that talented.”
Not everybody shares the vision. A quick check of instant draft grades from around the media landscape is unkind to Portland’s decision at No. 16. From checking the comment boards on this site, it’s clear the decision is controversial and polarizing among the fanbase. Many fans spent the last few months reading mock drafts, picking their prospect darlings and red-flag players Portland should select or avoid around No. 11. Yang didn’t appear in the public conversation as an option for either category, making his selection feel like a rug-pulling from out beneath Rip City — a collective “*Huh?*” reverberating across the Portland skyline.
However, amidst that wave of shock, the Blazers are standing firm behind their scouting work. There was also a tantalizing two-word nugget from NBA reporter Jake Fischer after the pick that raised eyebrows: A source from the Denver Nuggets texted him and described Hansen as “Chinese Jokic.” That may be the most compact, hope-inspired endorsement of a prospect this writer has seen all year.
The Blazers front office made a big bet on Hansen and itself with Wednesday’s shocker. If the gamble pays off and Hansen becomes a high-quality player, they’ll be geniuses — cigars, firm handshakes and hearty backslaps all around. If they’re wrong, particularly if the players Portland passed on hit it big, then the hindsight trial may be unforgivable to the Blazers 2025 draft. Only time will tell if this pick was more mad genius than mad.
“In times when we make what some would deem a questionable move,” Cronin said. “You hope that [fans] just trust that we’re doing our best to make the best decisions for this club and that the fans will be patient with what we’re trying to achieve.”