The Trail Blazers provided the biggest shock of the night, confusing their fans in Portland but delighting a lot of fans in China.
The Memphis Grizzlies and Portland Trail Blazers agreed to a trade just before the Blazers were set to pick at No. 11: Memphis would get the No. 11 pick, while Portland would get the No. 16 pick, Orlando’s 2028 first-round pick, and two second-round picks, a story broken by Shams Charania of The Athletic. (Because the league had not yet approved the trade, Portland made the 11th pick for Memphis, and Memphis would do the same for Portland at 16).
After trading away Desmond Bane, the Grizzlies needed more size and shooting on the wing, so with this trade they snapped up Cedric Coward. While Coward didn’t play a game since November for Washington State due to a shoulder injury, but as he went through the draft process he caught a lot of team’s eyes: He’s 6-5 with a 7-2 wingspan, an impressive 32.5-inch standing vertical leap at the NBA Draft Combine, and shot 38.8 percent from 3 in college. While he needs some development, he has all the tools to be a good fit next to Ja Morant. This was their guy, and they went and got him.
Then, Portland made the shock of the draft by selecting Hansen Yang, a center from China, who was projected to go in the second round (although there had been whispers that he might have a first-round promise, which was expected to be late if it existed at all). Nobody saw this coming.
Yang impressed at the NBA Draft Combine as a 7’1″ center with a good feel for the game and impressive passing. He showed off a respectable jump shot as well. There were things to like. Yang is also a massive star in his native China (Chinese NBA reporters left the NBA Finals at points to cover his draft prep work because that was the bigger draw).
However, he’s not an NBA-level athlete, not explosive and not stronger than his NBA competition — he’s big but not moving guys off the block to get to his spot like Karl-Anthony Towns. Yang has thrived in the Chinese league as a post scorer, but that’s not really a thing in NBA offenses (and there are questions about how he’d do at it). Additionally, there are concerns on the defensive end, where he can alter and block shots when he camps in the paint, but he would get torched when pulled out onto the perimeter.
Most teams saw him as more of a draft-and-stash in the second round, and maybe bring him to training camp and see how it goes. Now Portland has bet big on him.
