Hansen Yang: The Chinese Jokic?
Hansen Yang has all the skills to be the next star big man, but can he answer the questions around him?
The first time I saw Hansen Yang was in the FIBA U19 World Cup playing against Spain, and I instantly fell in love. Everything reminded me of himā¦Ā A 2,15 meters big guy that could finish around the rim with incredible touch, that could find every open guy on the court thanks to an amazing vision and that could also open up and let it fly from three. I think that with this description you already know who am I talking about. Not other than the 3 times MVP, Nikola Jokic.Ā
Of course once you fell in love everything is perfect, you want to watch as many games as possible and enjoy what you think is a unique player. However, in basketball as well as in life the blindfold falls and you start making questions. Thatās what happened with me and Hansen Yang, who I first saw as an immediate NBA star but once I watched more and more of him I started to realize that he had a lot of things to work on. I am not saying he cannot be an NBA star, I am just more realistic than at the beginning.
In this piece, I would try to analyze which are the strengths and weaknesses of Yang in both sides of the court. The strengths that make him an incredible basketball player and his weaknesses that limit his potential so much.
Offense
Touch around the rim and footwork
His touch around the rim is excellent, from the 2025 Draft guys he is the best in this area. He can finish with both hands, always finds the right angle using the backboard and if he cannot use the glass he always has other resources that make him very difficult to stop.
Yang is definitely a slow player and although this is a clear weakness in defense, he uses this pace positively in offense. His lack of speed makes him adjust to the opponent move correctly and always find the window from where to finish next to the rim. In the videos below you will see a lot of short roll points that turn into a post game one versus one possession.
Jointly with an awesome touch, the chinese player has beautiful footwork, which he utilizes to create advantages every time. He is not an explosive player and the majority of his points come after creating things with his movement. His post movement is top tier, as he uses his touch and his feet, but if he really wants to shine in the NBA he needs to invest in more velocity in order to create these opportunities.
Softness
Here comes the first weakness of Hansen Yang. He is the definition of soft, a 2,15 center who is allergic to contact is definitely not a good thing. Its a weird feeling when you are scouting a big man and instead of looking for the contact in order to finish he moves away from it and tries to make it more difficult in order to not to crash.
There are many possessions against smaller opposition where he doesnāt use his body to create the space he needs to finish. Yang moves away from contact and uses this other skills we have talked about before in order to convert two points. However, that might work in the CBA or in the FIBA U19 but definitely not in the NBA. In the best league in the world if you have a physical advantage you have to use it cause if you donāt you are going to see your shot blocked over and over again.Ā
The Chinese basketball team went to play in the Summer League last summer, and Yang's weakness was very clear to everyone watching the game. He struggles to create an advantage in every possession due to not being hard enough against his opponent. There were even some attacks where he couldnāt move his guy from the post, although he was smaller and lighter.
I really think that if he learns how to use his body correctly he can be the ultimate weapon offensively. A guy with nice touch around the rim and with good footwork which can actually create advantage with his body is very difficult to stop.
Lastly, he is definitely not an explosive guy as we have talked about before. However, he is 2,15 this means he could be able to dunk easily around the rim. Curiously, this is one of the things I have missed from his game. He doesnāt really dunks around the rim and although he has other ways of finishing next to the rim, in the NBA the best thing to do for a big guy is dunk it. A league so full of incredible physical players is going to punish again and again guys that donāt finish above the rim and I think this can also happen to Yang.
Playmaking
In the FIBA U19 World Cup I was astonished at how good Yang could pass the ball, he could find everyone everywhere around the court with ease. He averaged 5 assists, making it into the TOP 5 best assisters of the tournament.
His playmaking is still really good but he has definitely struggled to translate from kids to playing with adults. I donāt want to be misunderstood, his playmaking abilities are top tier and his court vision is really really good. However, he has to adapt his tempo to the professional level and this also means his passing timing.
At the World Cup every pass he made was perfect, in the CBA and in the Summer League he identifies the open player perfectly but he is sometimes a little bit slow to make the pass, which means turnovers.
I think this is a strength and not a weakness of Yangās game, and that he will adapt to the speed of whatever game he is playing.
Defense
His defense is a strength and a weakness at the same time. He doesnāt need to do much to block shots, just being around the rim means altering shots. He was the leader of the CBA in blocks last year, averaging 2,2 blocks per game.
He is 2,15 and when he doesnāt have to move much he can definitely block shots consistently cause he has the wingspan and the timing to do it.Ā
The real problem with Yangās defense is his lateral movement in order to block shots or alter them. He is very slow and this means that he doesnāt get to where he needs to at the time he needs to. In a lot of Pick & Roll actions he is dropping and once the point guard passes the ball to the roll he cannot get back and block that shot. He has the same problem as UCLA big man, Aday Mara. They both can block and alter shots if they are standing still but he canāt move quickly to a spot in order to protect the rim.
This is definitely his biggest weakness because he is going to be attacked everytime by the other NBA teams that know that he cannot move sideways. There are a lot of big guys in the NBA that have the talent offensively but that defensively are black holes and therefore cannot really make an impact. This is definitely Yangās situation where his lack of lateral speed and movement makes him a very easy target for NBA offenses.
In conclusion, Yang is a very nice player to watch due to his inherent talent to finish and pass the ball. However, once you start watching more and more tape, you start to realize that his weaknesses donāt make him an NBA player, at least at this moment. If basketball was like handball he could definitely be a star offensively, but defensively he is just too slow to make an impact and this condemns the whole team. I am really looking forwards to seeing a change in his defense in the CBA this year, which can be the difference between a first round pick and a late second round pick in Draft night.