2025 NBA draft combine: Top prospects, highlights, more – ESPN https://t.co/z2uMW3tjXo— LakerTom (@LakerTom) May 16, 2025
2025 NBA draft combine: Top prospects, highlights, more
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May 16, 2025 1 Comment
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FROM THE ABOVE ARTICLE:
Biggest storylines from Thursday at the combine:
Yang uses his NBA platform in a meaningful way
A player who had few NBA decision-makers evaluate him this season in Qingdao, China, Hansen Yang had a massive opportunity to introduce himself to a significant audience of executives in Chicago.
While far from perfect, Yang had a positive showing overall, demonstrating his unique blend of size (over 7-foot-2 in shoes), bulk (252 pounds), length (9-3 standing reach), skill and feel for the game, having two effective scrimmages this week.
Yang’s passing ability is perhaps his most interesting attribute, as he demonstrated high-level reads, finding teammates cutting with intelligent bounce passes or lobs and often being in the right spots defensively to contest shots around the rim or even block a 3-pointer in one memorable sequence. His skill level is pretty high, even if his lack of quickness and explosiveness showed at times, missing good looks inside the paint and getting beaten off the dribble from the perimeter.
He has questions to answer regarding his ability to defend in space and the fact that he posted just three defensive rebounds in 37 minutes of action.
Only 19 years old and potentially a year or two away from maximizing his draft outlook, it might not be the worst idea for Yang to withdraw his name from the draft and continue to work on his perimeter shooting, conditioning and defense to improve his chances of being a first-round pick in 2026.
It’s unclear whether the Chinese CBA is the best place for him to develop in those areas, as several league executives at Wintrust Arena mentioned they’d love to see him play college basketball in the United States.
No matter Yang’s short-term future, it’s clear he improved his standing while in Chicago and is now firmly on NBA radars, even if he still has work to do on his game. — Givony