Before anyone starts printing All-Star projections, look at what actually happened to Yang Hansen on Saturday night. He got real minutes in the first half because Portland had foul trouble up the depth chart, and he looked overmatched: an offensive foul on a screen, a blown alley-oop, the ball bobbling off his hands against Jazz starters who weren't trying very hard with their team about to lose its fourth straight. Once Portland had the game salted away and both benches emptied, he hit two three-pointers, finished with six points and five rebounds in 13 minutes, and the discourse treated it like a coming-out party. It was garbage time, against a team that finished the night without reaching 103 points for the first time all season and shot its worst percentage of the year doing it.
Utah came in 1-5. Portland came in 4-1, having lost its first game of the season two nights earlier in a blowout to an undefeated Memphis team, and this game was the response to that embarrassment. None of that context flatters a shooting line padded by Sidy Cissoko and Branden Carlson assists after the outcome stopped mattering.
The skeptics have the better argument here, and it isn't close. Hansen has appeared in exactly two games this season. His only extended look in a competitive, undecided game all year was the first half of this one, and it was bad. His rookie season was a 31 percent shooter from the field and barely cracked double digits from three, a line bad enough that opposing defenses simply didn't guard him out there. Two makes in bench-clearing time against backup Jazz defenders don't rewrite that history. They don't even dent it. If you want evidence of a shooting breakthrough, it needs to show up with the starters on the floor and the game still live. So far this season, it hasn't shown up at all.
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RatingWhat should worry Portland fans is who's supposed to be backing up Donovan Clingan. Branden Carlson got real minutes in a real, competitive game against Memphis the game before this one and did almost nothing with them: two points, two rebounds, a line Blazersedge called a struggle. Hansen got buried behind Carlson and Micah Potter for most of the season to this point and has already been optioned to the G League once. This is a roster with no answer at backup center, bouncing bodies in and out of the rotation and hoping one sticks.
Scoot Henderson's night is its own cautionary tale about reading too much into a box score. He started in place of the injured Ja Morant, looked inconsistent the way he's looked inconsistent since an excellent preseason gave way to a rough start to the regular season, shot poorly, turned it over more than he assisted, and still finished with 14 points, tied for second on the team, because the Jazz were overmatched. Scoot's line looks fine on a stat sheet from a blowout. It wasn't evidence of anything either.
RTGPortland fans are entitled to enjoy the two makes. Wanting Hansen to earn minutes after a rough season is fine. But wanting it and having actual evidence of it are different things. Right now, the only extended, meaningful look anyone's gotten at Yang Hansen against a live NBA defense this season ended with him fumbling the ball near the rim. Two jumpers against replacement-level Jazz defenders in a decided game don't change that. Call it what it is: a nice moment in a blowout.
