Joe Cronin Takes a Heat Check With Stunning Yang Hansen Draft Pick
The Trail Blazers broke with consensus and took the 7-foot-2 Chinese center in the first round.
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📍TUALATIN, Ore. — Right off the bat, Joe Cronin admitted that what the Trail Blazers did on Wednesday was "unconventional." That drafting 7-foot-2 Chinese center Yang Hansen with the No. 16 overall pick, even after trading back from 11th, was what most would call a "reach." That, based on public opinion, they might have "over-drafted" a prospect widely projected to be taken in the second round or, at best, later in the first.
There are surprise picks, and then there's this one. The last time I can remember a GM going this far off the board was Masai Ujiri drafting Bruno Caboclo, who was not ranked in ESPN's top 100 prospects, with the 20th pick in 2014. Fran Fraschilla's immortal line at the time was that Caboclo, who never panned out in the NBA, was "two years away from being two years away."
The Blazers don't think it will take Yang that long. Nor do they care if you think they're crazy.
