The Portland Trail Blazers shocked many in the basketball world on Wednesday night by moving down in the first round of the NBA draft from 11th to 16th in a proposed trade with the Memphis Grizzlies that landed them another big man, the 7-foot-2 Yang Hansen.
Perhaps not as surprised as Yang, who was sitting in the stands at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn and not among the players in the “green room.”
“I was expecting to be selected at the end of the first round,” said the 19-year-old Yang. “So, this is definitely a big surprise for me to be selected in the middle of the first round.”
Yang has spent the past two seasons playing for the Qingdao Eagles’ senior team in China’s top professional league (CBA), coming off a 2024-25 season in which he averaged 16.6 points, 10.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.6 blocks in 32.8 minutes per game across 45 contests.
In the trade, the Blazers also received 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 of Washington State, who Portland selected with the No. 11 pick.
Here’s how a some NBA insiders reacted to the Blazers’ pick.
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Former Columbian Blazers beat reporter Erik Gundersen, who writes Blazers Banter on substack.com and freelances for The Associated Press at Blazers games, posted:
While Blazers fans and the basketball world at large were stunned and stupefied, the roar from the Blazers draft war room indicated that they believed they just had pulled off a heist that nobody saw coming.
Blazers GM Joe Cronin said during his presser that “(Yang) was the target” for the Blazers, while adding that they were uncomfortable moving back further into the first round. Left unsaid by Cronin: the Nets, owned by Taiwanese-Chinese billionaire Joe Tsai, were lurking with the 19th pick.
So while nobody saw this move coming, and a lot of draftniks think the reach the Blazers took was insane, the roar from the war room suggests that everybody in that room believes they know something that nobody else does. Sometimes moves like that end up paying off in major ways, like when the Milwaukee Bucks drafted Giannis. Other times, it can be a team outsmarting itself, like when the Toronto Raptors drafted Bruno Caboclo.
Where Yang ends up on that spectrum is anybody’s guess. But the Blazers believe they have a deeper wealth of information on him than the rest of the NBA and the mock draft community.
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CBS analyst Matt Norlander said he was stunned by the 19-year-old getting picked so high.
“If Egor Demin going to Brooklyn was 6.8 on the shocking scale out of 10, this registers around a 9.5 overall,” Norlander said. “I can guarantee you people around the league are shaking their heads and texting each other right now going: ‘What on earth is Portland doing?’ ”
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ESPN’s NBA draft analyst and writer Jonathan Givony called the pick the biggest surprise of the first round.
“Despite selecting another 7-footer in Donovan Clingan last year, the Trail Blazers view the draft through a best-player-available lens and say they are very excited about Yang’s skill level and off-court intangibles. They plan to bring him to the NBA immediately to develop him.”
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Kevin Sweeney of SI.com gave the pick a D-plus grade.
“This was a legitimate shocker, with Portland taking a projected second-rounder in Yang all the way up at No. 16. Yang was impressive at the NBA draft combine with his size, touch around the rim and passing ability, but questions remain about his mobility and foot speed, especially on defense. Portland did invest significant resources in scouting Yang, so this isn’t out of left field … but from a value standpoint, this isn’t a great pick.”
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Adam Finkelstein and Kyle Boone of CBSSports.com handed out a C grade to the Blazers.
“This is higher than anyone projected (Yang) to be drafted. This is a swing of epic proportions and comes on the heels of the Blazers drafting Donovan Clingan. Perplexing. Can those guys play together? This is the biggest surprise bar none. If it hits, they’ll be smarter than everyone.”
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On the other side of the CBSSports.com room, Colin Ward-Henninger listed Yang among the “winners” of the draft.
“Yang was No. 43 in our CBS Sports NBA Draft prospect rankings. It was the biggest shock of the first round, and judging by the things people are discovering on social media, he’s going to be a fun player to track.”
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NBA senior analyst Kevin O’Connor of Yahoo Sports gave a C-plus grade.
“It is a fascinating pick from a fit standpoint: What does a Donovan Clingan/Hansen Yang frontcourt look like in Portland? Or are we gonna see a trade down with the Nets? Yang is a massive Chinese 7-footer who scores with old-school craft, passes well and cleans the glass. But how much his slow feet and lack of shooting range can be improved will determine whether he can stick in the pros.”
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And back to Gundersen for the last words.
“At this time last year, I was very skeptical of their trade for Deni Avdija, and it turned out to be one of their best moves of the Cronin era. If they’re right and Yang is the player they believe he is, the Portland Trail Blazers will become a global household name overnight. And if they’re wrong, jobs are on the line.”